swarm

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English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English swarm, from Old English swearm (“swarm, multitude”), from Proto-Germanic *swarmaz (“swarm, dizziness”), from Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“to buzz, hum”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Swoorm (“swarm”), Dutch zwerm, German Schwarm, Danish sværm, Swedish svärm, Icelandic svarmur (“tumult, swarm”), Latin susurrus (“whispering, humming”), Lithuanian surma (“a pipe”), Russian свире́ль (svirélʹ, “a pipe, reed”).

The verb is from Middle English swarmen, swermen, from Old English swierman (“to swarm”), from Proto-Germanic *swarmijaną (“to swarm”), from the noun. Cognate with Scots swairm, swerm (“to swarm”), Dutch zwermen, German schwärmen, Danish sværme, Swedish svärma.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

swarm of locusts.

swarm (plural swarms)

  1. A large number of insects, especially when in motion or (for bees) migrating to a new colony.
  2. A mass of people, animals or things in motion or turmoil.
    a swarm of meteorites
    • 1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 1051505315:
      those prodigious swarms that had settled themselves in every part of it [Italy]
  3. (computing) A group of nodes sharing the same torrent in a BitTorrent network.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb[edit]

swarm (third-person singular simple present swarms, present participle swarming, simple past and past participle swarmed)

  1. (intransitive) To move as a swarm.
    • 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, OCLC 5661828:
      There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy. Mail bags, so I understand, are being put on board. Stewards, carrying cabin trunks, swarm in the corridors.
  2. (intransitive) To teem, or be overrun with insects, people, etc.
  3. (transitive) To fill a place as a swarm.
  4. (transitive) To overwhelm as by an opposing army.
    • 2019 March 6, Drachinifel, The Battle of Samar (Alternate History) - Bring on the Battleships!‎[1], archived from the original on 20 July 2022, retrieved 19 November 2022, 37:59 from the start:
      So, yeah. The overall conclusion of the big gunfight being that, if Yamato is able to tackle the Colorados early, then the Japanese probably have a, maybe a sixty-to-sixty-five-percent chance of pulling this off... although you say "pulling it off", it's more a case of "the Japanese are the last battleship standing"; they tend to then just get swarmed by angry Fletchers […]
  5. To climb by gripping with arms and legs alternately.
  6. To breed multitudes.

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Middle English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old English swearm, from Proto-Germanic *swarmaz.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

swarm (plural swarmes)

  1. A swarm (large, moving group of bees)
  2. (rare) A large group of people.

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • English: swarm
  • Scots: swairm

References[edit]

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