sweart

Forms

sweart (superlative sweartest or sweartost)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz (“black”).^[1][2] The adjective is shared by the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐍃𐍅𐌰𐍂𐍄𐍃 (swarts), Old Norse svartr, Old Frisian swart, Old Saxon swart and Old High German swarz.^[2][3][4]

Orel and Köbler connect it with Latin sordēs (“dirt”), from a form Proto-Indo-European *swordos (“black, dirty”);^[2][4] Köbler marks the link to Pokorny's root with a query.^[2][4] Holthausen adds Old Norse sorti (“darkness, black cloud”), also with a query.^[3] Seebold thinks a base *swerk-, that of sweorcan (“to grow dark”), may underlie the words for "black, dirty", but finds no certain comparison for it outside Germanic.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first manuscripts with a secure date are of the mid-tenth century.^[6][7] In the Old English Boethius (Cotton Otho A. vi, s. x med.) the sun with its bright beams quenches þa þeostro … þære sweartan nihte “the darkness of the black night”.^[6][8] In Bald's Leechbook (Royal 12 D. xvii, s. x med.) among the signs of an illness are under tungan tulge swearte ædra “very black veins under the tongue”.^[7][8] The Tanner manuscript of the Old English Bede, dated s. x in. or xi¹, has mængo sweartra gasta “a crowd of black spirits”.^[9][8]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller divide the uses into three: of colour, black or dark; of the absence of light, gloomy, of night and of hell; and of the absence of good, black with sin, evil.^[10] In glosses it renders Latin words for black and dark, among them “ater”, “furvus”, “fuscus” and “taeter”, and the comparative glosses “furviores”.^[10] Köbler adds “deformis”.^[4] In the poetry wood smoke is wudurēc sweart, and the raven of the Finnsburh Fragment is sweart and sealobrūn.^[10][11] The moral sense, “wicked, infamous”, belongs to the homilies and poems such as Juliana.^[12] In the laws of Æthelberht sweart is said of a black bruise.^[13]

The word lived on as Middle English swart, of a dark sky, a dark place, black things and livid wounds.^[14] Etymonline notes that in English it gave way to black while the continental languages kept it.^[15]

Timeline

• s. x med. – þære sweartan nihte “of the black night” in the Old English Boethius.^[6][8]
• s. x med. – swearte ædra “black veins” in Bald's Leechbook.^[7][8]
• s. x² – ðære sweartan helle grund in Genesis B in the Junius manuscript.^[16][10]
• s. x/xi – wudurēc sweart “black wood smoke” in the Beowulf manuscript.^[17][11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. swart, swarthy, black, dark in colour.^[10][12]
2. dark for want of light, gloomy (of night, clouds, hell).^[10][18]
3. morally black, evil, infamous.^[10][12]

Word family

• colsweart
• sweartian
• āsweartian

Descendants

• Middle English swart (→ English swart; English swarth; Scots swart)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 392
3. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 334
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. sweart
5. ^ Seebold, Elmar (1970), Vergleichendes und etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen starken Verben, The Hague / Paris: Mouton
6. ^ a b c Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 296
7. ^ a b c Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 412
8. ^ a b c d e Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
9. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 531
10. ^ a b c d e f g Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 945
11. ^ a b Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. sweart
12. ^ a b c Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 329
13. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 206
14. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
15. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
16. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 513
17. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 344
18. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 188