swain
[sweyn]
- a male admirer or lover.
- a country lad.
- a country gallant.
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Origin of swain
before 1150; Middle English swein servant < Old Norse sveinn boy, servant; cognate with Old English swān
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for swain
Contemporary Examples
After two hearings in New York last week that were at times comic, Judge Swain fashioned a compromise.
Historical Examples
The more costly the musical ingredients, the greater the swain's devotion!
Jane Journeys OnRuth Comfort Mitchell
A swain touched then his lute, or whatever you may call it, to his Dulcinea.
The Lady and the PirateEmerson Hough
Her own swain was waiting for her, but not for that would she abjure the quest.
Country NeighborsAlice Brown
He called in the university for Swain, and the two went "down town" together.
Sons and LoversDavid Herbert Lawrence
Mr. Swain is an honest and an able man, though he believes in things I do not.
Richard Carvel, CompleteWinston Churchill
swain
- a male lover or admirer
- a country youth
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Word Origin
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
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Word Origin and History for swain
n.
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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper