Also 7 Sweath, Swead, Suede, Sweed. [a. MLG., MDu. Swede (mod. Zweed), HG. Schwede native of SWEDEN, q.v.
The OE. name was Swéon (pl.), in ON. Svíar (Sw. Svear), whence L. Suiones (see SUIOGOTHIC), med.L. Swei; also OE. Swéoþéod (Swáþéod in the Peterborough Chron. an. 1025), ON. Svíþjóð (= lit. Swede-people), whence, it has been conjectured, arose the forms from which Swede and Sweden are derived.
The med.L. forms for the name of the country are Suecia (whence It. Svezia, Sp., Pg. Svecia), Suedia, and Sueonia; for the adj. of nationality Suecus (whence Sp., Pg. Sueco), Suecicus, and Suedus.
1. A native of Sweden.
In quot. 1614 incorrectly tr. L. Suevi Swabians; May’s version (1627), has Sueuians.
1614. Gorges, Lucan, II. 45. Let red-haird Sweaths powre showrs of darts.
1644. (title) Good news for England; or a relation of more victories obtained by the Sweads against the king of Denmarke.
c. 1655. Milton, 1st Sonn. to C. Skinner, 8. And what the Swede intend, and what the French.
1663. Wood, Life (O.H.S.), I. 486. Mr. Thomas Baltzar, the Sweed, and great violinest.
1698. G. Thomas, Pensilvania, 51. The way of Worship the Sweeds use in this Countrey, is the Lutheran.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 1 Oct. 1661. At the reception of the Sweeds Ambassador.
1734. Pope, Ess. Man, IV. 220. Heroes are much the same,… From Macedonia’s madman to the Swede.
1831. Sir J. Sinclair, Corr., II. 209. Both the Danes and Swedes endeavour to follow the example of their wealthier neighbours, in keeping up a splendid court.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., II. xxiv. 124. The Swedes and Finns and Dutch were invested with the liberties of Englishmen.
2. A Swedish ship, rare–1.
1799. R. Smelt, in B. Ward, Dawn Cath. Revival (1909), II. 219. Mr. Wyndham with other ministers chartered a large Swede of 600 tons.
3. (= earlier Swedish turnip.) A large variety of turnip with yellow flesh, Brassica campestris, var. Rutabaga, first introduced into Scotland from Sweden in 1781–2.
1812. Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., I. 112. With turnips, particularly the Swedes, there is no occasion to give any corn to oxen.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 17. If weight of crop, nutritious property, and durability of texture are valuable properties in a turnip, none can exceed the Swedes.
1882. Hardy, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, IX. No. 3. 550. Wood-pigeons … stripped the leaves off most of the Swedes.
4. attrib. and Comb. in sense 3, as swede-field, -hacking, -trimming, turnip; swede greens, swede tops, the tops of swedes eaten as greens.
1851. ‘Cecil,’ Stud Farm, vi. 98. Swede turnips or parsnips are far superior [to carrots].
1887. Jefferies, Amaryllis, iii. If you can get fresh swede tops you don’t want a doctor within twenty miles. Ibid. Swede greens be the top of all physic.
1891. Hardy, Tess, xliii. The swede-field in which she and her companion were set hacking. Ibid. When it was not swede-hacking it was swede-trimming.
