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Swart vs Sward - What's the difference?

swart | sward | Alternative forms |

Swart is an alternative form of sward.


As nouns the difference between swart and sward

is that swart is black or dark dyestuff; something of a certain swart; something of a certain ocker or swart can be while sward is (lb) a layer of earth into which grass has grown; turf; sod.

As a adjective swart

is of a dark hue; moderately black; swarthy; tawny.

As a verb swart

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

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

    * *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    sward

    English

    Alternative forms

    * swarth * swart * swerd

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (lb) A layer of earth into which grass has grown; turf; sod.
  • * (1809-1892)
  • *:The sward was trim as any garden lawn.
  • (lb) An expanse of land covered in grass; a lawn or meadow.
  • *
  • *:It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick. As one sat on the sward behind the elm, with the back turned on the rick and nothing in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by.
  • *1890 , (Arthur Conan Doyle), ''(w) Company
  • *:.
  • *1918 , (Booth Tarkington), ''(w) Ambersons
  • *:Only where George stood was there left a sward as of yore; the great, level, green lawn that served for both the Major's house and his daughter's.
  • Skin; covering.
  • :(Halliwell)

    • Synonyms

    * (earth into which grass has grown ): grass, turf, sod * (land covered with grass ): clearing, field, greensward, lawn, meadow, yard

    Derived terms

    * greensward

    Anagrams

    * *

    References