Schwung

See also: schwung

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Schwung.

Noun

Schwung

1. (idiomatic, uncommon) Drive, energy, or verve.
   • 1901, Edwing Waugh, John Trafford Clegg, Oliver Ormeord, Miss Lahee, “The Lancashire Memorial”, in The Northern Counties Magazine‎^[1], volume 1, page 360:

     Now in regard to the points here raised by Mr. Brown it might perhaps be replied that the schwung alluded to belonged to the man, not the dialect, and that Tennyson could never have restricted himself to the Lincolnshire dialect, his outlook on the world and his knowledge of life necessarily overstepping such boundaries as these.

   • 1931, Berta Ruck, Offer of Marriage, page 12:

     Crisp turn-out, a waft of scent and face-powder, a laugh, a glance, a dash of chic, of schwung and pep, the twinkling of nimble legs on and off the train step.

   • 1981, Adrianus Franciscus Maria de Jong, Natural 14C Variations, page 1:

     At that time, it was Suess, who drew with "cosmic Schwung" medium-term variations through his own data.

German

Etymology

From Middle High German swunc, ablaut derivation from swingen, modern schwingen (“to swing”). Originally infrequent, but in general use since the 18th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃvʊŋ/, [ʃʋʊŋ], (chiefly northern also) [ʃʋʊŋk]

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

• Audio (Austria):

  (file)

Noun

Schwung m (strong, genitive Schwungs or Schwunges, plural Schwünge)

1. a swinging motion, sweep

   Mit einem Schwung warf er alle Akten vom Tisch.

   In one sweep he threw all the files off the desk.

2. a quantity so swept, (hence colloquial) any large amount

   Sie knallte mir einen Schwung Akten auf den Tisch.

   She banged a pile of files onto my desk.

3. momentum, speed, force (intensity of a specific movement)

   Du musst mit mehr Schwung über die Rampe fahren, wenn du weiter springen willst.

   You need to go over the ramp with more speed if you want to jump further.

   Er soll die flaue Wirtschaft wieder in Schwung bringen.

   His job is to stir the sagging economy.

   (literally, “... to bring it back into momentum.”)

   • 2002, Sebastian Krekow, Jens Steiner, Bei uns geht einiges, Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, →ISBN, page 92:

     Einer von uns hat sich getraut, etwas zu machen, und hat einen total krassen Rückwärtssalto mit viel zu viel Schwung gemacht […]

     One of us felt brave enough to do something, and went on to do an absolutely crazy backflip with way too much force […]

4. pep, vim, verve, dash, panache

   Die Show wirkt altbacken, sie braucht wieder mehr Schwung.

   The show feels stodgy, it needs to get some pep back.

Declension

Declension of Schwung [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Schwung	die	Schwünge
genitive	eines	des	Schwungs, Schwunges	der	Schwünge
dative	einem	dem	Schwung, Schwunge1	den	Schwüngen
accusative	einen	den	Schwung	die	Schwünge

¹Now rare, see notes.

Derived terms

• Abschwung
• Aufschwung
• schwungvoll
• in Schwung bringen

Descendants

• → Czech: švunk
• → Danish: schwung
• → Hungarian: svung
• → Dutch: schwung
• → Norwegian:
  • Norwegian Bokmål: schwung
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: schwung
• → Polish: szwung
• → Swedish: schvung, schwung

Further reading

• “Schwung” in Duden online
• “Schwung” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache