Etymology of swain

The source reports below are imported and unreviewed by *SET-U. Separate numbered origins and differing source variants are preserved; agreement within this extraction is not independent corroboration.

Unnumbered source etymology

Original entry ↗

noun

A young man or boy in service; a servant. · A knight's servant; an attendant. · A country labourer; a countryman, a rustic. · A rural lover; a male sweetheart in a pastoral setting.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

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”).

Relationships mentioned by the source

These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.

Inherited-form mentionswaynenm
Inherited-form mentionsweġenang
Derivation mentionsveinnnon
Derivation mention*swainazgem-pro · relative, young man, servant
Derivation mention*swéine-pro · oneself; separate; apart
Cognate mentionsvendda · hireling, young man
Cognate mentionsveinno · lad, young man, servant
Cognate mentionsveinnis · boy, lad, servant
Cognate mentionsvensv · swain, servant
Cognate mentionSweennds
Cognate mentionSchweinde
Cognate mentionswānang · swineherd, lad

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

{
  "templates": [
    {
      "name": "inh",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "swayn"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English swayn"
    },
    {
      "name": "inh",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ang",
        "3": "sweġen"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English sweġen"
    },
    {
      "name": "der",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "non",
        "3": "sveinn"
      },
      "expansion": "Old Norse sveinn"
    },
    {
      "name": "der",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gem-pro",
        "3": "*swainaz",
        "t": "relative, young man, servant"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-Germanic *swainaz (“relative, young man, servant”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "der",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ine-pro",
        "3": "*swé",
        "t": "oneself; separate; apart"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *swé (“oneself; separate; apart”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "da",
        "2": "svend",
        "t": "hireling, young man"
      },
      "expansion": "Danish svend (“hireling, young man”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "no",
        "2": "svein",
        "t": "lad, young man, servant"
      },
      "expansion": "Norwegian svein (“lad, young man, servant”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "is",
        "2": "sveinn",
        "t": "boy, lad, servant"
      },
      "expansion": "Icelandic sveinn (“boy, lad, servant”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "sv",
        "2": "sven",
        "t": "swain, servant"
      },
      "expansion": "Swedish sven (“swain, servant”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "nds",
        "2": "Sween"
      },
      "expansion": "Low German Sween"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "Schwein"
      },
      "expansion": "German Schwein"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "ang",
        "2": "swān",
        "t": "swineherd, lad"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English swān (“swineherd, lad”)"
    }
  ],
  "links": [
    [
      "swayn",
      "swayn#Middle_English"
    ],
    [
      "swain",
      "swain#Middle_English"
    ],
    [
      "sweyn",
      "sweyn#Middle_English"
    ],
    [
      "swein",
      "swein#Middle_English"
    ],
    [
      "sweġen",
      "swegen#Old_English"
    ],
    [
      "Swein",
      "Swein#Old_English"
    ],
    [
      "Sweġen",
      "Swegen#Old_English"
    ],
    [
      "sveinn",
      "sveinn#Old_Norse"
    ],
    [
      "*swainaz",
      "Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/swainaz"
    ],
    [
      "*swé",
      "Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/swé"
    ],
    [
      "svend",
      "svend#Danish"
    ],
    [
      "svein",
      "svein#Norwegian"
    ],
    [
      "sveinn",
      "sveinn#Icelandic"
    ],
    [
      "sven",
      "sven#Swedish"
    ],
    [
      "Sween",
      "Sween#Low_German"
    ],
    [
      "Schwein",
      "Schwein#German"
    ],
    [
      "swān",
      "swan#Old_English"
    ]
  ],
  "references": [],
  "descendants": [],
  "lexical": [
    {
      "pos": "noun",
      "glosses": [
        "A young man or boy in service; a servant.",
        "A knight's servant; an attendant.",
        "A country labourer; a countryman, a rustic.",
        "A rural lover; a male sweetheart in a pastoral setting."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "obsolete",
        "archaic",
        "poetic"
      ],
      "recordId": "c2bc894adb2375ace1dfd3c719a1ea1ef4b7b94ebd576e0004214692bc54999d",
      "rawRecordSha256": "2789d59d2db7a353fab8b8fa693bd9d9a308c9907770d56b961a114b3e9b11f6",
      "sourceRecordOrdinal": 240078
    }
  ],
  "omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
    "templates": 0,
    "links": 0,
    "references": 0,
    "descendants": 0,
    "lexicalRecords": 0,
    "lexicalSenses": 0,
    "glosses": 0
  }
}

The source etymologies

Unnumbered source etymology

Relationships mentioned by the source

Where this record stops

Source and snapshot