swole

English

WOTD – 5 November 2019

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swəʊl/
• IPA^(key): /swoʊl/
• Rhymes: -əʊl

Etymology

From earlier swoll, from Middle English swal, swall, swalle (simple past tense), and suoll, suolle, swalle, swol, swole, swolle, iswolle, yswolle (past participle), inflected forms of swellen (“to swell”), from Old English sweall (simple past tense), from Proto-Germanic *swall, first and third person singular preterite of Proto-Germanic *swellaną (“to swell”); further origin uncertain.

Verb

swole

1. (African-American Vernacular, Southern US, also in other English varieties in the simple past tense until early 20th c.) simple past and past participle of swell: swelled; swollen.

   His arm just swole up.  I ate until my belly had swole.

   • a. 1631 (date written), J[ohn] Donne, “The Storme. To Mr. Christopher Brooke.”, in Poems, […] with Elegies on the Authors Death, London: […] M[iles] F[lesher] for Iohn Marriot, […], published 1633, →OCLC, page 57:

     Mildly it [the wind] kiſt our ſailes, and, freſh, and ſweet, / As, to a ſtomack ſterv’d, whoſe inſides meete, / Meate comes, it came; and ſwole our ſailes, when wee / So joyd, as Sara’ her ſwelling joy’d to ſee.

   • 1914, Percival Christopher Wren, “Lucille”, in Snake and Sword: A Novel, London, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co. […], →OCLC, part II (The Searing of a Soul), page 78:

     If you drinks a drop more, Miss Lucy, you'll just go like my pore young sister goed, [...] Pop she did not. She swole … swole and swole. [...] I say she swole—and what is more she swole clean into a dropsy.

   • 1968, William S[eward] Burroughs, The Soft Machine: A Novel, London: Calder and Boyars, →OCLC; republished as The Soft Machine (A Flamingo Modern Classic), London: Flamingo, HarperCollins, 2001, →ISBN, page 11:

     [M]y tongue swole up and gagged me and my eyes blurred over with blood – [...]

   • 1977, John Cheever, Falconer (A Borzoi Book), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 185:

     Then they had this guy with clap, a light case of clap, and they gave him inoculations and his balls swole up, they swole up as big as basketballs, they swole and swole so he couldn't walk and they had to take him out of here on a board with these big globes sticking up in the sheet.

   • 1992, Olive Ann Burns, chapter 9, in Leaving Cold Sassy: The Unfinished Sequel to Cold Sassy Tree, New York, N.Y.: Ticknor and Fields, →ISBN, page 99; 1st Mariner Books edition, New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007, →ISBN:

     [A] man from White County had the dropsy? You know, somethin' wrong with his heart and him swole up all over? Uncle Alva said the man at the ho-tel said the man come up there swole up all over like he'd bust if you stuck a pin in him.

   • 1999 April 6, Stephen King, The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, May 2017, →ISBN, pages 67–68:

     She had overheard her Mom and Mrs. Thomas from across the street talking about someone who was allergic to stings, and Mrs. Thomas had said, "Ten seconds after it gut im, poor ole Frank was swole up like a balloon. If he hadn't had his little kit with the hyperdermic, I guess he woulda choked to death."

Alternative forms

• swoll

Adjective

swole (comparative more swole, superlative most swole)

1. (chiefly African-American Vernacular, slang) Having large, well-developed muscles; muscular.

   Synonyms: brawny, built, buff, buffed, buffed out

   I ain’t swole enough, brah. I gotta work out in the gym more.

   • 2005, Kalisha Buckhanon, “February 11, 1990”, in Upstate, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN:

     I will find something to slit my throat or hang some sheets from the ceiling or make one of these big, swole niggaz in here so mad at me that they break my neck.

   • 2011, Nikki Turner, “Who’s Fooling Whom?”, in A Woman’s Work: Street Chronicles (Nikki Turner Presents), New York, N.Y.: One World Trade Paperbacks, Ballantine Books, →ISBN:

     "That nigga lucky he still breathing right now, yo. I should've sent some of my niggas from Bunche Place over there to take care of his swole ass," Scoot said.

   • 2015, Nicole Winters, chapter 1, in The Jock and the Fat Chick, New York, N.Y.: Harper Teen, HarperCollins, →ISBN:

     It's the athletes who showed me how to get "swole." I found a series of online videos by this megaripped dude who taught me how to fine-tune my body and turn it into a machine. [...] It worked; I got swole.

2. (slang) Of the penis: erect; of a person: with an erection of the penis; sexually aroused, hard.

   a swole dick  her titties got me swole

   • 1978, Bruce Eliot [pseudonym; Edward Field and Neil Derrick], The Potency Clinic, New York, N.Y.: Bleecker Street Press, →OCLC:

     You'd like him a lot. Big and all swole up thinking about you. What kind of panties you got on, Olive?

   • 2010 August, Mary B. Morrison, “Darius”, in Darius Jones, New York, N.Y.: Dafina Books, Kensington Publishing, →ISBN; mass market edition, New York, N.Y.: Dafina Books, Kensington Publishing, February 2013, →ISBN, page 193:

     Those New Orleans women knew how to pop that pussy, and oh, my God—Slugger was on swole—thinking about that project chick sucking my dick on Tchoupitoulas.

   • 2016, White Chocolate [pseudonym], chapter 9, in Sex in the Hood Saga (Urban Renaissance), Wyandanch, N.Y.: Urban Books, →ISBN:

     He inhaled the smell of her designer perfume and salty pussy. That put Benzo on swole even more.

3. (slang) Followed by up: upset; experiencing strong negative emotion.
   • 1956, Charles Williams, chapter 4, in The Diamond Bikini (Gold Medal Books; s607), Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Publications, →OCLC; republished [New York, N.Y.]: Open Road Media, 2012, →ISBN:

     Every once in a while, maybe twice a year, Bessie gets all galled under the britchin' about something [...] Usually over some triflin' little thing that don't amount to a hill of beans, like I won't wash my feet or something, but she gets all swole up like a snakebit pup and says she's leavin' me for good this time.

   • 2006, Alex Taylor, “The Name of the Nearest River”, in American Short Fiction, Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 34; republished in The Name of the Nearest River: Stories (The Linda Bruckheimer Series in Kentucky Literature), Louisville, Ky.: Sarabande Books, 2010, →ISBN, page 6:

     She could pitch drunks out in the street like horseshoes and before then I'd never thought of her in a lovely way, she being big and thick, but now I saw her in Pugh's office peeling off her Wranglers and showing her dimpled thighs and I just got all swole up with lonesome.

   • 2012, Amos Walker, chapter 22, in Justice and the Heart, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 125:

     Of course, they was all swole up about it. Aint no self-repect'n smithy or ranch hand would be caught dead do'n housework.

Alternative forms

• swoll

Derived terms

• have one's pockets on swole
• swoleness

Related terms

• swollen

Translations

having large, well-developed muscles — see muscular

of the penis: erect; of a person: with an erection of the penis — see erect

upset — see upset

experiencing strong negative emotion

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Further reading

• “swole, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• Sowle, lowes, sowle