swoon

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English swounen, also swowenen and swoȝenen,^[2][3][4][5] probably a back-formation from Middle English swowening (“swooning, a fainting”);^[5][6][3][7] the OED calls the back-formation possible.^[4] The gerund comes in turn from iswowen (“in a swoon”),^[6][8] which developed from Old English geswōgen (“senseless, in a swoon”),^[8][6][3][9] the past participle of a lost verb *swōgan, known only in compounds such as āswōgan (“to choke”) and oferswōgan (“to choke, overgrow”), of uncertain origin.^{[8][6][10][11]} Partridge thinks a link with swōgan (“to make a loud noise, rush”) improbable,^[7] whereas Skeat took that verb, the source of sough, as the base.^[12] Etymonline and Klein compare Low German swogen (“to sigh”).^[10][3] Etymonline also allows that the verb may come from the noun.^[10] The noun was at first used only in phrases meaning "in a faint", altered from aswoon, and was later taken as a noun of the verb.^[4][13][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To faint: Etymonline dates the verb to about 1200,^[10] and Barnhart finds the participle iswoȝen in Layamon's chronicle of Britain, probably before 1200, then swounen about 1250.^[8] The OED's first quotation is from about 1290, in the life of Mary Magdalene in the South English Legendary.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The OED explains that the Middle English forms developed in three ways: swoune, swowne, which would have given a modern swown rhyming with down;^[4] swōne, which lost the ȝ or w and gave swoon;^[4] and sounye, soune, the source of a dialect verb sound, to swoon.^[4] Chaucer used the verb 18 times and Gower 15.^[14] The noun, first in to fall in swoon, had by 1390, in Gower, also the sense of a single fainting fit,^[4][13] and Spenser used it once, in 1590, for a deep sleep.^[4][13] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to suffer a suspension of thought and sensation; to faint", and the noun as "a fainting fit".^[15] Figurative uses followed: Keats applied the verb to natural phenomena in 1818, and Clare used it in 1821 for sinking into a state of rest.^[4] The verb also came to mean to be overcome with delight or rapture.^[13][5][11] The variant swound, with an added -d, was revived from dialect, apparently by Coleridge in The Ancient Mariner ("Like noises in a swound").^[16] The adjective swoony, delightful enough to make one swoon, is recorded by 1934.^[10] In the north of Scotland corn was said to be in the swoon when the strength of the seed was spent before it had rooted.^[17]

Timeline

• before 1200 – the participle iswoȝen, in a swoon, in Layamon.^[8]
• c. 1200 – verb, to become unconscious.^[10] The OED's first quotation is from about 1290.^[4]
• c. 1300 – noun, in the phrase in swoon, fainting.^[10][4]
• 1390 – a fainting fit, in Gower.^[4]
• 1590 – a deep sleep, in Spenser (obsolete).^[4][13]
• 1818 – figuratively, of natural things, in Keats.^[4]
• 1821 – to sink into a state of rest, in Clare.^[4]
• 1934 – swoony, delightful.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To faint; to lose consciousness for a short time: She swooned at the sight of the blood.^[5][11][4]
2. To be overcome with ecstasy or rapture; to be wildly delighted by someone or something: The audience swooned over the young tenor.^[5][11][13]
3. To sink into a quieter or more restful state.^[4]

Noun

1. A fainting fit; a loss of consciousness: He fell into a swoon.^[5][11][4]
2. A state of bewilderment or ecstasy; a daze.^[5]
3. (obsolete, 1590) A deep sleep.^[4][13]

Word family

• swooningly
• swoony
• aswoon

Related words

• sough
• swound

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
8. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)