Forms: 1 suearm, swearm, swerm, 4–7 swarme, 6 swerm, 4– swarm. [OE. swearm, Fris., MLG. swarm, OHG. suar(a)m (MHG. swarem, swarm, G. schwarm) swarm of bees or insects, ON. svarmr tumult (Norw. dial. svarm):—OTeut. *swarmaz.
The root is usually identified with that of Skr. svárati sounds, resounds, svará, svára sound, voice, and connected further with sur- in L. susurrus hum, MLG. surren to hum, MHG. surm humming, Lith. surmà pipe, etc. But the etymological meaning may be that of agitated, confused, or deflected movement, in which case SWARM and SWERVE might arise from parallel formations on the same base; cf. the parallelism of SWARM v.2 and SWARVE v.2; Norw. dial. svarma to be giddy, stagger, dream, and svarva to turn, go in a circle, stagger, be agitated (see SWARF v.); Icel. svarfla and svarmla ‘praecipitanter contrectare, huc illuc raptare’; also the meanings of G. schwärmen to swarm, rove, riot, fall into reverie, rave.
The existence of a mutated form in OE. (early WS. *swierm) cannot be inferred with certainty from the late instance of swerm (Napier, O. E. Glosses, 156/21), but such a form is found on the Continent in WFris. swerm, MLG., MDu. swerm (Du. zwerm), Da. sværm, Sw. svärm; cf. the vb.]
1. A body of bees which at a particular season leave the hive or main stock, gather in a compact mass or cluster, and fly off together in search of a new dwelling-place, under the guidance of a queen (or are transferred at once to a new hive).
c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (Hessels), E 506. Examen, suearm.
a. 1100. Aldhelm Gloss., I. 3821 (Napier 101/2). Examen, .i. multitudo apium, swearm ad aluearium, to hyfen.
13[?]. Cursor M., 7113 (Gött.). A swarm [Cott. bike] of bes þar-in war bred.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 223. Þikke þowsandez … Fellen fro þe fyrmament,… Hurled in-to helle-hole as þe hyue swarmez.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, II. 193. For neuere yet so þikke a swarm of ben Ne fleygh as Grekes gonne fro hym flen.
c. 1412. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 3380. Do no cruelte vnto þe swarm, But mekely hem gouerne.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., I. 1039. His hyuys hauynge redy forto take His swarmys yonge.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 122. If a swarme be caste late in the yere.
1603. Dekker, Wonderfull Yeare, Wks. (Grosart), I. 143. He strucke so sweetely on the bottome of his Copper instrument, that he would emptie whole Hiues, and leade the swarmes after him only by the sound.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 182. They can take swarms out of any stock that is able, and neglects to swarm, without any prejudice to the stock.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1824), III. 281. When a hive sends out several swarms in the year, the first is always the best and the most numerous.
1817. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xix. (1818), II. 166. A swarm seldom … takes place except when the sun shines and the air is calm.
1864. in N. & Q., 3rd Ser. VI. 493/2. A swarm of bees in May Is worth a load of hay. A swarm of bees in June Is worth a silver spoon. A swarm of bees in July Is not worth a butterfly.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 341. Each swarm contains not only the recently-hatched young bees, but also a portion of the old inhabitants.
b. allusively of persons who leave the original body and go forth to found a new colony or community.
1659. in Burton’s Diary (1828), IV. 352. They are rather inferior than superior: but a swarm from you. You are the mother-hive. They are but a rib from your side.
1761. Hume, Hist. Eng. to Hen. VII. (1762), I. ii. 55. A new swarm of Danes came over this year [875].
1827. G. Higgins, Celtic Druids, 78. It is very probable that a great swarm from the hive bearing the name of Scythians may have arrived in Germany.
1900. G. C. Brodrick, Mem. & Impr., 213. The learned theory of Mr. H. Rashdall, that as Oxford was (or must have been) a swarm from Paris, so Cambridge was (or must have been) a swarm from Oxford.
2. A very large or dense body or collection; a crowd, throng, multitude. (Often contemptuous.)
(a) of persons.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., clxv. And euer I sawe a new[e] swarm [of folk] abound.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 291. There shall … come leapyng foorth whole swarmes, of bothe horsemen and footemen.
1549. Hooper, Funerall Oratyon, B vij. As black is contrarye vnto whyte: and the catholycke churche of Christ, to the smerm [read swerm] and multytude of Antichriste.
1553. Becon, Reliques of Rome (1563), 87 b. A swarme of Bishops to the number … of CCCL.
1605. 1st Pt. Jeronimo, I. iii. 22. Farmers that crack barns With stuffing corne, yet starue the needy swarmes.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies (1667), II. Worc., 183/1. England in swarms did into Holland throng.
1685. Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., 2 Cor. xi. 13. It ’s no wonder then if there be swarms of false Ministers, pretending to be the true Ministers of Christ.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time, III. (1724), I. 357. We saw what swarms of sects did rise up on our revolt from Rome.
1852. Tennyson, Ode Wellington, 110. Beating from the wasted vines Back to France her banded swarms.
1878. Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 310. The onset of a second son of the same dreaded chieftain, who would sweep down with new swarms of Gauls and Spaniards from the north.
(b) of insects or other small creatures, esp. flying or moving about; † rarely of large animals.
1560. Bible (Genev.), Exod. viii. 21. I wil send swarmes of flies bothe vpon thee, & vpon thy seruants.
a. 1569. Kyngesmill, Man’s Est., xi. (1580), 73. There was fleshe enough to satisfie that swarme of adders, the Pharisees.
1600. J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa, I. 39. Great swarmies of tigres, which are very hurtfull both to man and beast. Ibid., 51. Swarmes of a kinde of fowles of the bignes of duckes.
1684. Contempl. St. Man, I. x. (1699), 116. Locusts … in great swarms shall disperse themselves over the Face of the whole Earth.
1780. Cowper, Progr. Err., 481. The wriggling fry soon fill the creeks around, Pois’ning the waters where their swarms abound.
1842. Tennyson, Locksley Hall, 10. Many a night I saw the Pleiads … Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid.
1914. Brit. Mus. Return, 197. A swarm of cockroaches … in a house at Chislehurst.
(c) of inanimate objects or abstract things.
1582. Bentley, Mon. Matrones, I. 1. My sinne … are so manie, that the infinit swarme of them [etc.].
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., V. i. 55. This swarme of faire aduantages.
1684. Bunyan, Pilgr., II. 6. Upon this, came into her mind by swarms, all her unkind, unnatural, and ungodly Carriages to her dear Friend.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 2. Such a swarm of Vessels of greater bulk.
1785. Burke, Sp. Nabab of Arcot’s Debts, Wks. 1842, I. 340. He is overpowered with a swarm of their demands.
1866. Whittier, Snow-bound, 33. A night made hoary with the swarm And whirl-dance of the blinding storm.
1890. Nature, 20 March, 473/2. There are swarms of dust travelling thro’ space.
(d) Biol. A cluster of free-swimming cells or unicellular organisms moving in company.
1900. B. D. Jackson, Gloss. Bot. Terms.
3. attrib. and Comb.: swarm-cell Biol. = swarm-spore (a); swarm-movement Biol., the movement of swarm-spores in ‘swarming’ (SWARM v.1 1 c); swarm-spore Biol. (cf. SWARM v.1 1 c), (a) a motile spore in certain Algæ, Fungi, and Protozoa, a zoospore; (b) the free swimming embryo or gemmule of freshwater sponges.
1882. Vines, trans. Sachs’s Bot., 38. Much quicker movements … occur in cells either before their growth, as in *swarm-cells, or when it is nearly completed.
1898. Porter, trans. Strasburger’s Bot., I. i. 50. The swarm-spores of the Myxomycetes soon lose this characteristic *swarm-movement.
1859. J. R. Greene, Man. Anim. Kingd., Protozoa, 42. Ciliated *swarm spores, similar to those which are found in Spongilla.
1874. A. W. Bennett, in Pop. Sci. Rev., XIII. 29. The production of spontaneously motile zoospores, or ‘swarm-spores.’
1880. Bessey, Botany, 36. The swarm-spores … are naked masses of freely moving protoplasm.
