swoon
[swoon]
- to faint; lose consciousness.
- to enter a state of hysterical rapture or ecstasy: The teenagers swooned at the sight of the singing star.
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- a faint or fainting fit; syncope.
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Origin of swoon
1250–1300; (v.) Middle English swo(w)nen to faint, orig. as gerund swowening, swoghning act of swooning, ultimately continuing Old English -swōgan (in compounds) to rush, overrun, choke; (noun) Middle English, partly derivative of the v., partly extracted from in (a) swoune, on swoune, alteration of a swoune, aswoune in a swoon, as if equivalent to a a-1 + swoon (noun), but probably continuing Old English āswōgen, past participle of āswōgan to overcome (see a-3), or geswōgen (past participle) senseless, dead
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for swoon
Contemporary Examples
More than anything else, teenagers seemed to swoon over tenderness and vulnerability that the Beatles expressed in their songs.
Long before he took the stage, the mere mention of his name sent this crowd into a swoon.
Like a verbal snake charmer, he could swoon them into missteps, even confessions.
Then Dylan McDermott turns around in an FBI vest and a Dirty Harry attitude, and you swoon.
Your silky bangs look gorgeous under the lights and your deep brown eyes make me swoon.
Michelle Obama Stranded by Her Man as Barack Goes on a Golfing WeekendLauren Ashburn
February 16, 2013
Historical Examples
All this Barnaby saw with his first clear consciousness after his swoon.
Howard Pyle's Book of PiratesHoward Pyle
Vanished into the swoon whose blackness encompassed and hid me.
PoemsWilliam D. Howells
I was ready to swoon, not with grief and trouble, but with solid joy and peace.'
BunyanJames Anthony Froude
Did you drop no word during my swoon that might have led them to suspect?
Victor's TriumphMrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth
Private Smith wakened from one swoon only to fall into another.
When the West Was YoungFrederick R. Bechdolt
swoon
- a literary word for faint
- to become ecstatic
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- an instance of fainting
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Also (archaic or dialect): swound
Word Origin
Old English geswōgen insensible, past participle of swōgan (unattested except in compounds) to suffocate
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 swoon
n.
c.1300, suowne, "state of unconsciousness," probably from Old English geswogen "in a faint," past participle of a lost verb *swogan, as in Old English aswogan "to choke," of uncertain origin. Cf. Low German swogen "to sigh."
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v.
c.1200, "to become unconscious," probably from a lost Old English verb *swogan (see swoon (n.)). Related: Swooned; swooning.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper