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Dusky vs Swart - What's the difference?

dusky | swart | Related terms |

Dusky is a related term of swart.


As adjectives the difference between dusky and swart

is that dusky is dimly lit, as at dusk (evening) while swart is of a dark hue; moderately black; swarthy; tawny.

As nouns the difference between dusky and swart

is that dusky is a dusky shark while swart is black or dark dyestuff; something of a certain swart; something of a certain ocker or swart can be .

As a verb swart is

to make swart or tawny; as, to swart a living part; blacken; tan.

dusky

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Dimly lit, as at dusk (evening).
    • I like it when it is dusky , just before the street lights come on.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1907, author=
    • , title=The Dust of Conflict , chapter=1 citation , passage=A beech wood with silver firs in it rolled down the face of the hill, and the maze of leafless twigs and dusky spires cut sharp against the soft blueness of the evening sky.}}
  • A shade of color that is rather dark.
    • The dusky rose was of a muted color, not clashing with any of the other colors.
  • (dated) dark-skinned
    • '>citation
  • :* In the raw attempt to apply the perfected institutions of Anglo-Saxon civilization to the descendants of the dusky races which inhabited Mexico before the discovery of America by Columbus, the Mexican statesmen of 1824 put the principles of democratic government to a terrible ordeal.
  • ashen, greyish skin coloration
    • This man in shock has a silver colored dusky skin tone.

    Noun

    (duskies)
  • A dusky shark.
  • A dusky dolphin.

    • swart

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) swart, from (etyl) . Compare (l), (l).

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Of a dark hue; moderately black; swarthy; tawny.
  • * 1400s:' , ''Hymns to the Virgin'' - Men schalle then sone se / Att mydday hytt shalle ' swarte be
  • * 1590', , ''The Faerie Queene'', Book 2 - A nation strange, with visage ' swart
  • * , III-i - Lame, foolish, crooked, swart , prodigious,
  • * 1819 , , Otho the Great , Act II, Scene I, verses 91-92
    • I'll choose a gaoler, whose swart monstrous face
    Shall be a hell to look upon […]
  • * 1836', , ''Old Ticonderoga'' - The merry soldiers footing it with the ' swart savage maids
  • Black.
  • (obsolete) Gloomy; malignant.
  • * 1906', , ''Time and the Gods'' - Suddenly the ' swart figure of Time stood up before the gods, with both hands dripping with blood and a red sword dangling idly from his fingers, and said: “Sardathrion is gone! I have overthrown it!”
    • (Milton)
    Derived terms
    * swarten * Swart star, (Rare): the Dog Star -- so called from its appearing during the hot weather of summer, which makes swart the countenance. * swarthy (< swarty)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Black or dark dyestuff; something of a certain swart; something of a certain ocker.

    • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) swarten, from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make swart or tawny; as, to swart a living part; blacken; tan.
  • * 1646', , ''Pseudodoxia Epidemica'' - the heate of the Sun, whose fervor may ' swarte a living part, and even black a dead or dissolving flesh,

    • Etymology 3

    Variant of sward.

    Noun

    (-)
  • * 1587: Raphael Holinshed, Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland [http://www.archive.org/stream/holinshedschroni01holi#page/356/mode/1up]
    • Howbeit where the rocks and quarrie grounds are, I take the swart of the earth to be so thin, that no tree of anie greatnesse, other than shrubs and bushes, is able to grow or prosper long therein for want of sufficient moisture wherewith to feed them with fresh humour, or at the leastwise of mould...

    References

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