Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having a dark complexion or color.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Dark; tawny; swart.
- To blacken; make swarthy or swart.
Wiktionary
- adj. tawny, dusky, dark
- adj. dark-skinned
- adj. nonstandard evil, malicious
- adj. nonstandard weathered, rough
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Being of a dark hue or dusky complexion; tawny; swart.
- v. obsolete To make swarthy.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. naturally having skin of a dark color
Etymologies
- Alteration of swarty, from swart + -y, Old English sweart, "black". (Wiktionary)
- Alteration of swarty, from swart. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Lean could go either way, it makes sense describing a magazine or a human, but swarthy is a word that has sexual connotations and creates a spark of juxtaposition when placed next to periodicals, injecting an almost comedic element to the opening.”
O’Hara : Jeffrey McDaniel : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation
“The number of purely white People in the World is proportionally very small…in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are Germans also, the Saxons only accepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth.”
Think Progress » Pat Buchanan’s Anti-Hispanic Rhetoric Echoes Earlier Anti-Immigrant Hysteria
“And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth.”
Think Progress » Buchanan: Americans Should Consider Allowing Only White Immigrants
“The people are thus far nearly white in the colour of their skin, but in the more southerly of the three regions above defined, with a mixture of brown, or of the complexion of brunettes, or such as we term swarthy or sallow persons.”
“Once again, as in the case of a woman found guilty by a bank teller of depositing a small cheque, the swarthy are at special risk.”
“The four classes are thralls (slaves who are described as swarthy, twisted, and ugly), karls (freeman farmers, described as strong and ruddy, of red hair and complexion), jarls (earls, described as fair of skin and complexion), and the kings (even fairer than the jarls).”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Approaching Arguments That Have A Racist Past
“We can call the swarthy man in the commercial Walid Ibn Horton.”
“Standing upon the lonely sea shore, Uriah recalled the swarthy, leering face of Sam Jones, recently punished for infraction of discipline, and the crooked smile of Martin, he who puffed everlastingly at his pipe and wore a red handkerchief for a turban and earrings of heavy gold.”
The New Land Stories of Jews Who Had a Part in the Making of Our Country
“Swart star: the Dogstar, called swarthy because its heliacal rising in ancient times occurred soon after midsummer.”
“They wake the slumbering bride long before Don Miguel calls his swarthy retainers to the day's march.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘swarthy’.
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EN - archaic words
abide, abjure, abroad, adamant, afield, aforetime, aghast, anon, apace, argent, assuage, aught and 328 more...
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Genes
Interesting gene names. Some of these may have changed recently (to something less offensive/funny).
http://www.genenames.org/
tinman, agnostic, dreadlocks, Van Gogh, fruitless, lava lamp, ariadne, cheap date, ken and barbie, I'm not dead yet, I'm not dead yet 2, manic fringe and 1192 more... -
January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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Unwording
Outlawed words and books, like this.
samizdat, satanic verses, profanity, oriental, antilanguage, biddy, aviatrix, squaw, deaf-mute, border patrolman, cassandra, niggardly and 45 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Dark (in color)
Adjectives meaning dark (in color)
sombre, somber, aphotic, swarthy, obfuscous, fuscous, tenebrous, dark, deep, umbral, dusky
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capitalcreative's Words
deviltry, visceral, cassanova, assuage, genesis, hot minute, osmosis, wistful, sublime, loathe, farfetched, newfangled and 283 more...
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Kalli's Words
redundant, munchkin, escapade, natch, boom, fap, geek, nocturnal, pedantic, tactile, conversant, oxymoron and 188 more...
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intueri's Words
inveigle, dolorous, archly, feckless, resplendent, concatenation, peripatetic, delightful, cookie, fey, ephemeral, effervescent and 347 more...
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Colors
Words for colors, including things so associated with a color that they can be used in reference to a color.
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, purple, navy, lavender, turquoise, chartreuse and 218 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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Appellations
States of ment.
off kilter, fervent, nonchalant, exuberant, turbid, verbose, eloquent, vicarious, gallivant, orotund, amalgamate, accentuate and 285 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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caspermilktoast's Words
frenetic, farrago, fandango, ensemble, assay, emulsion, taut, winnow, ridonkulous, ginormous, frisson, idee fixe and 181 more...
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Time for a new list!
abrupt, erupt, rupture, sync, appropinquity, heterochromia, homochromatic, monochromatic, willy nilly, nitty gritty, kowtow, wonton and 455 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
Tweets
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