swain
Americannoun
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a male admirer or lover.
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a country lad.
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a country gallant.
noun
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a male lover or admirer
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a country youth
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of swain
before 1150; Middle English swein servant < Old Norse sveinn boy, servant; cognate with Old English swān
Explanation
If you want to sound old-fashioned and a little bit fancy, you can refer to your boyfriend as your swain. Old words in English tend to accumulate meanings like old rocks accumulate barnacles, and this one's no exception. These days most folks use it as an elegant variation on male admirer, but originally it denoted a rustic or peasant, specifically a young man or boy who worked as a knight's servant. It comes from the Old Norse word sveinn, which means "boy, servant, or attendant."
Vocabulary lists containing swain
Quiz yourself on these words spoken by the man at the center of the "Laurel" / "Yanny" craze!
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"Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant
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Poems 10.1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Like a handsome but withholding swain, Elba draws us back to “Luther” time and again.
From Salon • Jun. 1, 2019
Hopeful swain Melchor moves to L.A. to meet his online love, Magdalena, for the first time, only to fall in love with a mysterious masked woman — unaware that she is Magdalena in disguise.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 22, 2018
It’s back to the archipelago with this 1990 musical by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty in which a peasant girl and a wealthy swain are tangled in a divine bet between love and death.
From New York Times • Nov. 30, 2017
Daniels has also changed the genders of one of the human characters: The young swain Lysander is now a woman.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 20, 2011
Jackson moves over to Katherine and bows over her hand like a true swain, murmuring pleasantries.
From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
