name
Meaning 1
A surname.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
swain
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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/sweɪn/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -eɪn
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CMU ARPABET: S W EY1 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
A young man or boy in service; a servant.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
A knight's servant; an attendant.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
A country labourer; a countryman, a rustic.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
A rural lover; a male sweetheart in a pastoral setting.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: poetic
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 6
a man who is the lover of a girl or young woman
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- if I'd known he was her boyfriend I wouldn't have asked
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: boyfriend, fellow, beau, young man
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: lover, man, adult male
History
Etymology
From Middle English swayn, swain, sweyn, swein, from Old English sweġen (attested also as personal name Swein, Sweġen), from Old Norse sveinn, from Proto-Germanic *swainaz (“relative, young man, servant”), from Proto-Indo-European *swé (“oneself; separate; apart”), thus properly one's own. Cognate with Danish svend (“hireling, young man”), Norwegian svein (“lad, young man, servant”) Icelandic sveinn (“boy, lad, servant”), Swedish sven (“swain, servant”), Low German Sween, dialectal German Schwein, Old English swān (“swineherd, lad”).
Across languages
Translations
7 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: момък (momǎk) — young man or boy, young shepherd, young attendant
- Czech: panoš — young man or boy, young shepherd, young attendant
- Polish: giermek — young man or boy, young shepherd, young attendant
- Slovak: panoš — young man or boy, young shepherd, young attendant
- Spanish: zagal — young man or boy, young shepherd, young attendant
- Czech: nápadník — sweetheart
- Polish: wiejski kochanek — sweetheart
Real reading context