Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Swarthy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make swart; blacken; tan.
  • Being of a dark hue; moderately black; swarthy: said especially of the skin or complexion.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To make swart or tawny.
  • adjective Of a dark hue; moderately black; swarthy; tawny.
  • adjective obsolete Gloomy; malignant.
  • adjective [R.] the Dog Star; -- so called from its appearing during the hot weather of summer, which makes swart the countenance.
  • noun obsolete Sward.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of a dark hue; moderately black; swarthy; tawny.
  • adjective Black.
  • adjective obsolete Gloomy; malignant.
  • noun Black or dark dyestuff; something of a certain swart; something of a certain ocker.
  • noun Obsolete spelling of sward.
  • verb transitive To make swart or tawny; as, to swart a living part; blacken; tan.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective naturally having skin of a dark color

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English swarte, from Old English sweart.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Variant of sward.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English swarten, from Old English sweartian ("to become black; make black"), from Proto-Germanic *swartōnan (“to blacken, make black”), from Proto-Indo-European *swordos (“black, dirty”).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English swart, from Old English sweart ("swarthy, black, dark; gloomy; evil, infamous"), from Proto-Germanic *swartaz (“black, dark-coloured”), from Proto-Indo-European *swordo- (“dirty, dark, black”). Cognate with Scots swart ("black"), West Frisian swart ("black"), Dutch zwart ("black, dark"), Low German swart ("black"), German schwarz ("black"), Danish sort ("black"), Swedish svart ("black"), Icelandic svartur ("black"), Latin sordes ("dirt, filth"). Compare sordid, surd.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word swart.

Examples

  • The four were swarthy men, and, unlike the Greeks they were seeking to oppose, their swart was a peculiarity of birth, a racial sign.

    The Prince of India — Volume 02 Lewis Wallace 1866

  • "Other political parties, like the NP, have nothing else to campaign about and can no longer use their" swart - "and" rooigevaar "tactics and are now reverting to using the" moving parliament gevaar ".

    OPPOSITION USING "MOVING PARLIAMENT GEVAAR" AS ELECTION CAMPAIGN 1999

  • Jees Uck was of a swart-skinned breed, it is true, but she was not an Indian; nor was she an Eskimo; nor even an Innuit.

    THE STORY OF JEES UCK 2010

  • A slender, swart-skinned man, lithe of figure and graceful, stepped forward to the open space before the table.

    CHAPTER 26 2010

  • And since it has been determined that love is service, and since to renounce is to serve, then Jees Uck, who was merely a woman of a swart-skinned breed, loved with a great love.

    THE STORY OF JEES UCK 2010

  • How-ha grunted, and yielded up the obedience she could not withhold; though, as she went down the stairs to the door, in a tenebrous, glimmering way she wondered that the accident of white skin or swart made master or servant as the case might be.

    CHAPTER 19 2010

  • Now, I will photograph the tree in its demise, upended in swart disarray.

    The Tree is Farther to the Man Bill Yarrow 2011

  • The swart face of the older half-breed flushed angrily, as he drew himself up and promised in good, round terms that he would travel his leader off his legs, and would then be delighted to plant him in the snow.

    TO THE MAN ON THE TRAIL 2010

  • Beyond the wide court slept a dark abyss, and into the abyss there poured a white cascade of marble stairways, and widened out below into terraces and balconies with fair white statues on them, and descended again in a wide stairway, and came to lower terraces in the dark, where swart uncertain shapes went to and fro.

    "I run off where the drifts get deeper." greygirlbeast 2009

  • The swart face of the older half-breed flushed angrily, as he drew himself up and promised in good, round terms that he would travel his leader off his legs, and would then be delighted to plant him in the snow.

    To The Man on the Trail 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • The figure that now stood by its bows was tall and swart, with one white tooth evilly protruding from its steel-like lips.

    - Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 48

    July 25, 2008