swart

• (UK) IPA^(key): /swɔː(ɹ)t/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /swɔɹt/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)t

From Middle English swart, from Old English sweart, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz, from Proto-Indo-European *swerd-.

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, “Book II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     A nation strange, with visage swart

   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     Lame, foolish, crooked, swart, prodigious,

   • 1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC:

     Of shades , and wanton winds , and gushing brooks ,
     On whose fresh lap the swart - star sparely looks

   • 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

   • 1905, Samuel Major Gardenhire, The Silence of Mrs. Harrold - Page 277:

     The keeping eunuchs were at back, solemn in stately rows, bespeared and bescimitared, the Danish, Irish, and German of their countenances lost in the daub which made them swart.

   • 1925, Ezra Pound, Canto I:

     […] unpierced ever
     With glitter of sun rays
     Nor with stars stretched, nor looking back from heaven
     Swartest night stretched over wretched men there.

2. (UK dialectal) Black. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. (obsolete) Gloomy; malignant.
   • 1906, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], Time and the Gods‎^[1], London: William Heineman, →OCLC, page 4:

     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!”

• swarten
• swarty

• forswart
• swartness

swart

1. (UK dialectal) Black or dark dyestuff.

• swarth

From Middle English swarten, from Old English sweartian, from Proto-West Germanic *swartōn, from Proto-Germanic *swartōną. By surface analysis, swart +‎ -en.

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

1. (transitive) To make swart or tawny; blacken; tan.

   to swart a living part

   • 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,

Variant of sward.

swart (uncountable)

1. Obsolete spelling of sward.
   • 1587, Raphael Holinshed, Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland‎^[2]:

     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 […]

swart (plural swarts)

1. (Ireland dialectal) Variant of swath.

• “swart”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “swart”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volume V, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• Straw, straw, warts

From Dutch zwart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz.

• IPA^(key): /swɑrt/

• Audio:

  (file)

swart (attributive swart or (chiefly of people or in figurative use) swarte, comparative swarter, superlative swartste)

1. black (colour)

   Antonym: wit

   ’n swart kat ― a black cat

2. (figurative) black, bad, ill-omened

   ’n swart(e) dag ― a black day

3. black, Black (classification of people)

   Coordinate terms: bruin, wit / blank

   ’n swart(e) vriend ― a Black friend

• swatt (Münsterland)
• schwart (Paderbornisch)
• swaart (Bremian)

From Middle Low German swart, from Old Saxon swart, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz.

• IPA^(key): /swart/, /swaːt/, /svaːt/
• IPA^(key): /zwart/, /zwaːt/
• IPA^(key): /swat/, /svat/

swart (comparative swärter, superlative swärtst)

1. black

swart

1. Romanization of 𐍃𐍅𐌰𐍂𐍄

From Old Dutch swart, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz.

swart

1. black

• Dutch: zwart
  • Afrikaans: swart
• Limburgish: zwart
• West Flemish: zwort

• “swart”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “swart (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I

• (Early ME) sweorte, swearte, sweart, swærte
• swarte, suart, suarte, swert, swerte

From Old English sweart, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz; compare Middle Dutch swart, Middle Low German swart, Middle High German swarz.

• IPA^(key): /swart/, /swɛrt/

swart (plural and weak singular swarte, comparative swarter)

1. Dark, oppressive, blackened.
2. Black; swart.
   1. Black-skinned, swarthy; having dark skin.
   2. (rare) Bruised, heavily wounded.
3. (rare) Evil, malign.

• swarten
• swartish
• swartnesse

• English: swart, swarth
• Scots: swart

• “swart, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-06-23.

From Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz.

swart

1. black

• Middle Low German: swart
  • Low German:
    • German Low German: swart, schwart

      Hamburgisch: swatt

      Westphalian:

      Münsterländisch: swatt

      Paderbornisch: schwart

      Lippisch: schwart

      Ravensbergisch: swārt, swat

      Sauerländisch: schwart, schwatt, schwuat, schwoart, schwuart, schwoert

      Westmünsterländisch: schwatt, schwott, schwart

      → German: schwatt

    • Plautdietsch: schwoat
  • → Danish: sværte (“black dye”)

From Middle English swart, from Old English sweart, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz.

swart (plural swarts)

1. Black or dark dyestuff.

From Old Norse svartr.

swart (comparative mair swart, superlative maist swart)

1. Black; swarthy.

• swartback

From Old Frisian swart, swert, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz.

swart

1. black

• “swart (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

swart n (plural swarten)

1. black

• “swart (II)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011