swot

See also: SWOT

English

Alternative forms

• swat

Etymology

From a dialectal English word, from Middle English swot, swat, from Old English swāt (“perspiration; sweat”), from Proto-Germanic *swaitą (“sweat”). More at sweat.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /swɒt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /swɑt/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /swɔt/

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

• Homophone: swat
• Rhymes: -ɒt

Verb

swot (third-person singular simple present swots, present participle swotting, simple past and past participle swotted)

1. (intransitive, slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) To study with effort or determination. (Can we add an example for this sense? )

   Synonym: cram

Derived terms

• swot up on
• swot vac

Translations

study hard

• Armenian: կրծել (hy) (krcel)
• Bulgarian: зубря (bg) (zubrja)
• Catalan: empollar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 死記 / 死记 (zh) (sǐjì)

• Dutch: blokken (nl), stampen (nl)
• Finnish: ahtaa päähänsä, päntätä (fi)
• French: bûcher (fr), bosser (fr), potasser (fr), bachoter (fr), se bourrer le crâne
• Galician: chapar
• German: büffeln (de), pauken (de)
• Hindi: रटना (hi) (raṭnā), रट्टा मारना m (raṭṭā mārnā)
• Hungarian: magol (hu), bemagol (hu), biflázik (hu)
• Irish: pulc
• Italian: sgobbare (it)
• Japanese: がり勉する (gariben suru)
• Korean: 열공하다 (yeolgonghada)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: pugge (no)

• Polish: kuć (pl) impf, wkuwać impf, wkuć (pl) pf
• Portuguese: marrar (pt)
• Russian: зубри́ть (ru) impf (zubrítʹ), вы́зубрить (ru) pf (výzubritʹ)
• Spanish: empollar (es) (colloquial), chancar (es)
• Thai: ติว (dtiu)
• Turkish: ineklemek (tr), hatmetmek (tr), hafızlamak (tr)
• Welsh: adolygu (cy)

See also

• hit the books

Noun

swot (countable and uncountable, plural swots) (slang, British)

1. One who swots; a boffin, nerd, or smart aleck.
   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, page 23:

     He liked Tom all right... Sampson and Bullock he could do without, however. Especially Sampson, who was too much of a grammar-school-type swot ever to be quite the thing.

   • 2006 April 18, Philip Beadle, “Mind maps: rubbish in theory, but handy in practice”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     The popular science bit goes like this. Your brain has two hemispheres, left and right. The left is the organised swot who likes bright light, keeps his bedroom tidy and can tolerate sums. Your right hemisphere is your brain on drugs: the long-haired, creative type you don't bring home to mother.

   • 2023 August 8, Janan Ganesh, “The oneness of Ron DeSantis and Rishi Sunak”, in Financial Times‎^[2]:

     On first listen, Americans of a certain vintage would call one a Poindexter, while older Brits would regard the other as a swot.

2. Work.
   • Quoted in 1983, Ivor Gurney, ‎Robert Kelsey Rought Thornton, War Letters: A Selection (page 254)

     All I want is — guerre fini, soldat fini; and to go home without burden of any thought save music, and hard swot for a time.

3. Vigorous study at an educational institution.

   (Can we add an example for this sense? )

Derived terms

• swotty

Translations

one who swots

• Bulgarian: зубрач (bg) m (zubrač)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 死記者 / 死记者 (sǐjìzhě)

• Dutch: blokker (nl) m
• Finnish: hikipinko (fi), hikari (fi), hikke (fi), pinko (fi)
• French: (colloquial) bûcheur (fr) m, bosseur (fr) m, bachoteur (fr)
• Galician: chapón m
• German: Büffler m
• Japanese: 我利勉, がり勉 (gariben)
• Korean: 공부벌레 (gongbubeolle)
• Manx: ard-studeyr m
• Polish: kujon (pl) m
• Portuguese: marrão (pt) m (Portugal)
• Russian: зубри́ла (ru) m or f (zubríla)
• Spanish: empollón (es) m, empollona (es) f (Spain, derogatory), chapón m, chapona f (Spain, derogatory), mateo (es) m (Chile, colloquial), chancón (es) m
• Swedish: plugghäst (sv) (derogatory)

work

• French: boulot (fr) m, (slang) tapin (fr) m
• Russian: вка́лывание n (vkályvanije) (colloquial)

vigorous study

• Bulgarian: зубрене n (zubrene)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 死記 / 死记 (zh) (sǐjì)

• Dutch: blok (nl) m
• French: (slang) bachot (fr) m, bachotage (fr)
• German: Büffeln (de) n, Pauken (de) n
• Japanese: がり勉 (gariben)
• Russian: зубрёжка (ru) f (zubrjóžka)

Anagrams

• OTWs, Stow, TOWs, Tows, ow'st, stow, tows, twos, wost, wots

Old English

Adjective

swōt

1. synonym of swēte (“sweet”)

Saterland Frisian

Alternative forms

• swoot

Etymology

From Old Frisian swart, from Proto-West Germanic *swart. Cognates include German schwarz and West Frisian swart.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /svɔt/
• Hyphenation: swot
• Rhymes: -ɔt

Adjective

swot (masculine swotten, feminine, plural or definite swotte, comparative swotter, superlative swotst)

1. black

References

• Marron C. Fort (2015), “swot”, in Saterfriesisches Wörterbuch mit einer phonologischen und grammatischen Übersicht, Buske, →ISBN