Crossword clues for swain
swain
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Swain \Swain\, n. [OE. swain, swein, Icel. sveinn a boy, servant; akin to Sw. sven, Dan. svend, AS. sw[=a]n, OHG. swein.]
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A servant. [Obs.]
Him behoves serve himself that has no swain.
--Chaucer. -
A young man dwelling in the country; a rustic; esp., a cuntry gallant or lover; -- chiefly in poetry.
It were a happy life To be no better than a homely swain.
--Shak.Blest swains! whose nymphs in every grace excel.
--Pope.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
mid-12c., "young man attendant upon a knight," from Old Norse sveinn "boy, servant, attendant," from Proto-Germanic *swainaz "attendant, servant," properly "one's own (man)," from PIE *swoi-no-, from root *s(w)e- "oneself, alone, apart" (see idiom). Cognate with Old English swan "shepherd, swineherd," Old Saxon swen, Old High German swein. Meaning "country or farm laborer" is from 1570s; that of "lover, wooer" (in pastoral poetry) is from 1580s.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (lb en obsolete) A young man or boy in service; a servant. 2 (context obsolete English) A knight's servant; an attendant. 3 (context archaic English) A country labourer; a countryman, a rustic. 4 (context poetic English) A rural lover; a male sweetheart in a pastoral setting.
WordNet
Gazetteer
Housing Units (2000): 7105
Land area (2000): 528.100785 sq. miles (1367.774696 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 12.543112 sq. miles (32.486509 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 540.643897 sq. miles (1400.261205 sq. km)
Located within: North Carolina (NC), FIPS 37
Location: 35.421822 N, 83.446528 W
Headwords:
Swain, NC
Swain County
Swain County, NC
Wikipedia
Swain, Swains or Swain's may refer to:
Swain (foaled February 12, 1992) is an Irish-bred Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He is one of only two horses to win two editions of Britain's premier weight-for-age race, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Swain is an English surname derived from the Old Norse personal name Sveinn ( Sven, Sweyn), meaning a youth or young man. There are a number of variations in the spelling of the surname Swain, including Swaine, Swainne, and Swayne.
From this word meaning boy, young male or servant, are derived:
- The noun swain, meaning a rustic lover or boyfriend, cf. the numerous examples in Shakespeare's work, including his lyric, "[w]ho is Sylvia, what is she that all our Swains commend her" (from The Two Gentlemen of Verona) and "O God! methinks it were a happy life, To be no better than a homely swain;" (from King Henry VI)
- There are also specific nautical words involving swain: boatswain (literally "young man in charge of a boat") which can be seen in Shakespeare's The Tempest, and coxswain.
People with the name include:
- Bennie Swain, an American professional basketball player
- Brennan Swain, an American television star and winner of The Amazing Race
- Brett Swain (disambiguation)
- Carol M. Swain, American academic
- Danny!, an American rap performer and record producer from Columbia, South Carolina
- David Lowry Swain, a governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina in 1832-1835
- Diana Swain, a Canadian television journalist
- Dominique Swain, an American actress
- George Gilbert Swain, an American politician
- Gladys Swain, a French psychiatrist and writer
- James Swain, an American author of mystery novels and non-fiction magic books
- Jon Swain, an award-winning British journalist and writer
- Kenny Swain, a retired English football player
- Leonard Swain, an American Congregational minister
- Louisa Ann Swain, the first woman in America to vote in a general election
- Mack Swain, an American actor and vaudevillian
- Paul Swain, a New Zealand politician
- Richard Swain, a New Zealand rugby league football player
- Tony Swain (disambiguation)
Usage examples of "swain".
But thou, Swain of Upmeads, wilt thou deem it hard to lie anear the horses, to watch them if they be scared by aught?
Jemima had not figured Randall Birley as at all political, unlike Millie Swain, but perhaps he had been persuaded by Millie to do a commercial for the Labour-Liberal coalition.
It was Jemima Shore, not Charley Baines, who was the unwilling witness to the subsequent colloquy between Randall Birley and Millie Swain.
Where Randall Birley and Millie Swain were concerned, Jemima was still at this point unaware that they had not arrived together.
The noise was caused by Millie Swain pushing her way out of the row, under the cover of the heavy applause for Randall Birley, or was it for Helen Troy?
Britishborn bairns lisping prayers to the Sacred Infant, youthful scholars grappling with their pensums or model young ladies playing on the pianoforte or anon all with fervour reciting the family rosary round the crackling Yulelog while in the boreens and green lanes the colleens with their swains strolled what times the strains of the organtoned melodeon Britannia metalbound with four acting stops and twelvefold bellows, a sacrifice, greatest bargain ever .
Stokes left office at the new year, and the new governor was a man called David Swain, who came from Buncombe County, not far from here.
They were Alice Daker and Jenny Marsh, girlfriends of the slumbering swains.
The son, Byron Daws, goes to university with your young swain, you know.
There had been Albert Swain and Charlie Smedley, Bob Maycock and George Chislet, as well as Peter Foster, who had sometimes brought his harmonica along and played a few of the old songs.
Albert Swain did up his bootlace and glanced at Bob 496 Maycock who had not moved.
Lady Pippin, in a harassed manner that few of her swains would have recognized.
The little man lifted his small white hand, offering the grey wristband to Swain.
Swain said, frowning at the thick grey wristband clamped to his wrist.
The enamoured swain, after settling an annuity of seven hundred pounds per annum upon the fair inconstant, had the mortification to find himself abandoned on the very night the deeds were completed, the lady having made a precipitate retreat, with a more favoured lover, to Paris.