U.S. slang. [prob. north. Eng. dial. Is’ wan lit. ‘I shall warrant’ = I’ll be bound; later taken as a mincing substitute for SWEAR v. Cf. SWANNY v.] I swan, I declare: often in exclamatory asseveration.
I swan to man, a mitigated form of I swear to God.
1823. Missouri Intell. 20 May (Thornton). I swan it is.
1836. Haliburton, Clockm. (1862), 65. If you hante obsarved it, I have, and a queer one it is, I swan.
1842. Mrs. Kirkland, Forest Life, I. ii. 20. ‘Well! I swan!’ exclaimed the mamma.
1844. ‘J. Slick,’ High Life N. York, I. 3. I swan if it warn’t enough to make a feller dry to see the hogsheads of rum and molasses.
1861. Lowell, Biglow P., Ser. I. i. Poems 1890, II. 239. They du preach, I swan to man, it’s puf’kly indescrib’le!
1873. Carleton, Farm Ball., ‘Betsey & I are out,’ ii. ‘What is the matter?’ say you. I swan it ’s hard to tell!
