Now only rhet. or poet. (or dial.) Forms: 1 sweart, 2 sward, 3 swært, sweort, swerd, suart, 5 swertt, 5–6 swarte, 5, 7 swert, 1– swart. [Com. Teut.: OE. sweart, OS., OFris. swart (NFris. sûart, EFris. suurt, WFris. swart), MLG. LG. swart, MDu. swart (Du. zwart), OHG., MHG. swarz (G. schwarz), ON. svartr (Sw. svart, Da. sort), Goth. swarts; f. root swart- ‘dark,’ of which another grade is found in ON. sorta black dye, sorti black cloud, sortna to grow black, Surtr (see SURTURBRAND).
While surviving as the regular color-word in the Continental languages, it has been superseded in ordinary use in English by black.]
1. Dark in color; black or blackish; dusky, swarthy. a. gen.
Beowulf, 167 (Gr.). Heorot eardode, sincfaʓe sel sweartum nihtum. Ibid., 3145. Wudurec astah sweart.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 310. Ðeos wyrt … ys þyrnihton stelan … & bradran leafon þonne leac & sweartran.
a. 1122. O. E. Chron. (Laud). Þa wearð swiðe mycel wind fram þa undern dæies to þa swarte nihte.
a. 1200. Moral Ode, 278, in O. E. Hom., I. 177. Nis þer neure oþer liht þanne þe swarte leie.
c. 1205. Lay., 11974. Swurken vnder sunnen sweorte weolcnen.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 10049. Vor he vel of is palefrey & brec is fot … So suart so eni crowe amorwe is fot was.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., C. 363. To be swolȝed swyftly wyth þe swart erþe.
c. 1430. Hymns Virg., etc. (1895), 119. Hitt shalle be swarte as any pyche.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 38. It is smaller, smother, and of a swarter colour.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXIII. i. II. 149. Foule and unseemly swert skars, it reduceth to the fresh and naturall colour.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., I. i. Wks. 1856, I. 73. You horrid scouts That centinell swart night.
1682. Sir T. Browne, Chr. Mor., III. § 6. Nor deepen those swart Tinctures, which Temper, Infirmity, or ill habits have set upon thee.
1794. Coleridge, Koskiusko, 4. Through the swart air … on the chill and midnight gale Rises … The dirge of murder’d Hope!
1811. Scott, Don Roderick, I. liii. Swart as the smoke from raging furnace.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 283. The trees upon the swart hillsides were visible … as at midday.
b. spec. Of the skin or complexion, or of persons in respect of these.
a. 1395. Hylton, Scala Perf. (W. de W., 1494), II. xii. Beholde me not that I am swart [ed. 1533 blacke] for the sonne hath defaded me.
a. 1400–50. Wars Alex., 3970. Þa swart men of ynde.
c. 1407. Lydg., Reason & Sens., 3791. Vulcanus … For his smotry, swarte face He stood clene out of hir grace.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 192. This king was of stature talle, somewhat swarte or black of colour.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., III. ii. 104. Anti. What complexion is she of? Dro. Swart like my shoo, but her face nothing like so cleane kept.
1614. Sylvester, Bethulia’s Rescue, III. 36. The swelting coasts of swartest Abyssine.
1613–6. W. Browne, Brit. Past., I. iv. The swart ploughman for his breakfast staid.
1634. Milton, Comus, 436. No goblin, or swart faëry of the mine.
1810. Shelley, Solitary, ii. The swart Pariah in some Indian grove.
1825. Scott, Talism., xxvii. Their countenance swart with the sunbeams.
1901. E. L. Arnold, Lepidus, 154. This swart adventurer made love to the girl that was all in all to me.
† c. Livid through suffering or emotion. Obs.
a. 1400. Sir Beues (S.), 1912. For teene he wexe al swert.
c. 1485. Digby Myst., Mary Magdalene, 780. I wax alle swertt!
1567. Golding, Ovid’s Met., XII. (1593), 288. Al his body waxt starke cold and died swart.
1581. in Farr, S. P. Eliz. (1845), II. 395. Who alwaies thinkes of death Shall neuer looke with cheereful face, But swarte, and wan.
1590. Barrough, Meth. Phisick, I. iii. (1639), 5. Their face is … full and pale, and their eyes are swolne and swart.
d. quasi-adv. qualifying an adj. of color.
In first quot. swarte is a disyllable, as if repr. OE. swearte adv.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, III. 557. Blak blo grenyssh swarte Red.
c. 1530. Judic. Urines, II. xiv. 45 b. Lyke as we see whan a thyng that is swart grene.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 82. Small round beries of a swarte redde colour.
1841. Browning, Pippa Passes, II. 51. An Almaign Kaiser,… Swart-green and gold, with truncheon based on hip.
2. transf. Producing swarthiness of complexion.
Applied by Milton to some heavenly body, perhaps the dog-star (cf. Hor., Od., III. xxiii. 9), in reference to the heat of summer; hence in echoes of Milton, sometimes in sense ‘malignant’ (cf. 3 b).
1637. Milton, Lycidas, 138. Ye valleys low … On whose fresh lap the swart Star sparely looks.
1759. Mason, Caractacus, Ode, II. iii. From the sultry south alone The swart star flings his pestilential fire.
1818. Keats, Endym., II. 15. Swart planet in the universe of deeds!
1862. Trench, Poems, 254 (Sonnet), The swart sun’s blaze Down beating with unmitigated rays.
1892. Henley, Song of Sword, etc., 15. From swart August to the green lap of May.
b. Dressed in black.
Cf. MLG. swartbroder, ON. swartmunkr, etc., a Dominican, black friar.
1688. Mrs. Behn, Fair Jilt, Plays etc. 1871, V. 206. Canonesses, Begines, Quests, Swart-Sisters, and Jesuitesses.
1856. Aytoun, Bothwell, II. ix. There he stood,… Swart in the Congregation’s garb.
3. fig. a. ‘Black,’ wicked, iniquitous. b. Baleful, malignant.
a. 900. Cynewulf, Juliana, 313 (Gr.). Wraþra fela … bealwa … sweartra synna.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom. (Th.), I. 54. Swa lange swa he hylt ðone sweartan nið on his heortan.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 304. A domesdei schulen ure swarte sunnen bicleopen us stroncliche of ure soule murðre.
1594. Carew, Tasso, IV. xx. (1881), 78. Whereto booted this, if they no mote Of these vncertaine broyles the issue cleere?… Nor hels swart cunning could to truth direct?
1852. Rock, Ch. Fathers, III. ix. 222. Whenever any swart evil had betided this land.
1867. Emerson, Poems, The Past, 8. Nor haughty hope, nor swart chagrin, nor murdering hate.
4. Comb., as swart-colo(u)red, -complexioned, -faced, -featured, -visaged adjs. (Cf. OE. swearthǽwen.)
1873. Brooklyn Daily Times, 5 Aug., 2/6. In the earliest record of the settlement of New England these *‘swart colored’ people ‘stole at the first opportunity which offered itself.’
1620. T. Granger, Div. Logike, 67. Vnder the North pole they are browne, and swart coloured.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., xxviii. The *swart complexiond night.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xi. A … *swart-faced knave of that noble mystery.
1905. Tuckwell, Remin. Radical Parson, xii. 181. A great gathering of swart-faced enthusiasts in the Black Country.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. IV. iv. So many *swart-featured haggard faces.
1858. O. W. Holmes, ‘This is it,’ 57, in Aut. Breakf.-t., ii. Bare-armed, *swart-visaged, gaunt, and shaggy-browed.
† B. sb. A person of swarthy complexion; in quot. c. 1425 fig. as a term of reproach. Obs. rare.
c. 1425. Cast. Persev., 2211, in Macro Plays, 143. Charyte, þat sowre swart, with fayre rosys myn hed gan breke.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Swarts, a name formerly applied by voyagers to Indians and negroes.
