swain

[sweyn]

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noun

a male admirer or lover.

a country lad.

a country gallant.

Origin of swain

before 1150; Middle English swein servant < Old Norse sveinn boy, servant; cognate with Old English swān

Related formsswain·ish, adjectiveswain·ish·ness, nounun·der·swain, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for swain

sweetheart, squire, love, suitor, paramour, admirer, steady, honey, escort, flame, beloved, lover, cavalier, inamorato, wooer

Examples from the Web for swain

Contemporary Examples of swain

After two hearings in New York last week that were at times comic, Judge Swain fashioned a compromise.
Madoff's Millionaire Secretary
Allan Dodds Frank
December 20, 2010

Historical Examples of swain

The more costly the musical ingredients, the greater the swain's devotion!
Jane Journeys On
Ruth Comfort Mitchell
A swain touched then his lute, or whatever you may call it, to his Dulcinea.
The Lady and the Pirate
Emerson Hough
Her own swain was waiting for her, but not for that would she abjure the quest.
Country Neighbors
Alice Brown
He called in the university for Swain, and the two went "down town" together.
Sons and Lovers
David Herbert Lawrence
Mr. Swain is an honest and an able man, though he believes in things I do not.
Richard Carvel, Complete
Winston Churchill

British Dictionary definitions for swain

swain

noun archaic, or poetic

a male lover or admirer

a country youth

Derived Formsswainish, adjective

Word Origin for swain

Old English swān swineherd; related to Old High German swein, Old Norse sveinn boy; see swine

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for swain

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 *swe- "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.