swart

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English swart, from Old English sweart (“swarthy, black, dark; gloomy; evil, infamous”), from Proto-Germanic *swartaz (“black, dark-coloured”), from Proto-Indo-European *swordo- (“dirty, dark, black”). Cognate with Scots swart (“black”), West Frisian swart (“black”), Dutch zwart (“black, dark”), Low German swart (“black”), German schwarz (“black”), Danish sort (“black”), Swedish svart (“black”), Icelandic svartur (“black”), Latin sordes (“dirt, filth”). Compare sordid, surd.

Adjective

swart (comparative swarter, superlative swartest)

1. Of a dark hue; moderately black; swarthy; tawny.
   • 1400s: Thomas Occleve, Hymns to the Virgin - Men schalle then sone se / Att mydday hytt shalle swarte be
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book 2 - A nation strange, with visage swart
   • 1596, William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John, III-i - Lame, foolish, crooked, swart, prodigious,
   • 1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, Act II, Scene I, verses 91-92

     I'll choose a gaoler, whose swart monstrous face

     Shall be a hell to look upon […]

   • 1836, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Old Ticonderoga - The merry soldiers footing it with the swart savage maids
2. (UK dialectal) Black.
3. (obsolete) Gloomy; malignant.
   • 1906, Lord Dunsany, Time and the Gods - Suddenly the swart figure of Time stood up before the gods, with both hands dripping with blood and a red sword dangling idly from his fingers, and said: “Sardathrion is gone! I have overthrown it!”

Derived terms

• Swart star, (Rare): the Dog Star -- so called from its appearing during the hot weather of summer, which makes swart the countenance.
• swarthy (< swarty)

Noun

swart (plural swarts)

1. (UK dialectal) Black or dark dyestuff; something of a certain swart; something of a certain ocker.

Etymology 2

From Middle English swarten, from Old English sweartian (“to become black; make black”), from Proto-Germanic *swartōną (“to blacken, make black”), from Proto-Indo-European *swordos (“black, dirty”).

Verb

swart (third-person singular simple present swarts, present participle swarting, simple past and past participle swarted)

1. (transitive) To make swart or tawny; as, to swart a living part; blacken; tan.
   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica - the heate of the Sun, whose fervor may swarte a living part, and even black a dead or dissolving flesh,

Etymology 3

Variant of sward.

Noun

swart (uncountable)

1. Obsolete spelling of sward.
   • 1587: Raphael Holinshed, Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland [1]

     Howbeit where the rocks and quarrie grounds are, I take the swart of the earth to be so thin, that no tree of anie greatnesse, other than shrubs and bushes, is able to grow or prosper long therein for want of sufficient moisture wherewith to feed them with fresh humour, or at the leastwise of mould...

References

• swart in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1914

Anagrams

• Straw, straw, warts

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Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch zwart.

Adjective

swart (attributive swarte, comparative swarter, superlative swartste)

1. black

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Gothic

Romanization

swart

1. See 𐍃𐍅𐌰𐍂𐍄

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Low German

Alternative forms

• svart
• (Low Prussian) schwart

Etymology

From Old Saxon swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz, from Proto-Indo-European *swordo- (“dirty, dark, black”).

Adjective

swart

1. (in some dialects) black

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Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *swartaz, whence also Old English sweart, Old High German swarz, Old Norse svartr. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swordo- (“dirty, dark, black”).

Adjective

swart

1. black

Declension

Declension of swart

Strong declension
	masculine		neuter		feminine
	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
nominative	swart	swarte	swart	swarte	swart	swartu
accusative	swartan	swarte	swart	swarte	swarta	swartu
genitive	swartes	swartarō	swartes	swartarō	swartaro	swartarō
dative	swartumu	swartum	swartumu	swartum	swartaro	swartum
Weak declension
	masculine		neuter		feminine
	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
nominative	swarto	swartu	swarta	swartu	swarta	swartu
accusative	swartun	swartun	swarta	swartun	swartun	swartun
genitive	swartun	swartonō	swartun	swartonō	swartun	swartonō
dative	swartun	swartum	swartun	swartum	swartun	swartum

Descendants

• Low German: swart

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Scots

Etymology 1

From Middle English swarte, from Old English sweart (“black”), from Proto-Germanic *swartaz (“black”), from Proto-Indo-European *swordo- (“dirty, dark, black”). Cognate with Middle Dutch swart (“black”), Middle Low German swart (“black”).

Noun

swart (plural swarts)

1. Black or dark dyestuff.

Etymology 2

From Old Norse svartr (“black”). Cognate with Norwegian svart (“black”).

Adjective

swart (comparative mair swart, superlative maist swart)

1. Black; swarthy.

Derived terms

• swartback

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West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian swart, swert, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz, from Proto-Indo-European *swordo- (“dirty, dark, black”). Compare English and Low German swart, Dutch zwart, German schwarz, Danish sort.

Noun

swart

1. black