Swedish

a. and sb. Also 7 Swethish, 8 Sweedish. [f. SWEDEN or SWEDE + -ISH¹, after G. schwedisch, MDu. swedesch, sweets(ch), Du. zweedsch.]

  A.  adj. Of or belonging to Sweden or the Swedes.

  Swedish clover: = ALSIKE. Swedish coffee: see COFFEE 4 b. Swedish drill, gymnastics, movements, a system of muscular exercises as a form of hygienic or curative treatment. Swedish feather: see FEATHER sb. 14. Swedish glove: see SUÈDE Swedish nightingale, the thrush-nightingale, Daulias philomela; also misapplied to the redwing. Swedish turnip = SWEDE 3. Swedish work, a kind of hand-weaving: see quot. 1882. Also in reference to iron obtained, or processes of iron manufacture introduced, from Sweden.

1632.  (title) The Swedish Discipline, Religiovs, Civile, and Military.

1652.  [see FEATHER sb. 14].

1656.  Act Commw. c. 20 Rates (1658), 469. Iron Amys, Spanish, Spruce, and Swethish, the Tun 16 00 00.

1738.  Gentl. Mag., Nov., 594/1. Lord and Master of the Swedish Nation.

1756.  F. Home, Exper. Bleaching, 164. There would appear … a greater difference than this, betwixt the Swedish ashes, if that is the true process.

1786.  Grose, Milit. Antiq., I. 165. Rests thus armed [with spikes, etc.], were called swines or Sweedish feathers, and were contrivances preceding the use of the bayonet.

1791.  Encycl. Brit., VIII. 761/1. The ruta baga, or Swedish turnip, is a plant from which great expectations have been formed.

1819.  Scott, Leg. Montrose, ii. I was often obliged to run my head against my old acquaintances, the Swedish feathers, whilk your honour must conceive to be double-pointed stakes, shod with iron at each end, and planted before the squad of pikes to prevent an onfall of the cavalry. Ibid., xi. The Captain … whistled a Swedish retreat.

1852.  Burn, Naval & Milit. Dict. (1863), Swedish ship, craīer.

1879.  E. P. Wright, Anim. Life, 235. The Swedish Nightingale (Daulias philomela) does not occur in Great Britain.

1882.  Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 466. Swedish Work, a kind of weaving much practised in Sweden…. It is worked in a small frame, shaped like a comb, and with two sets of threads to form the woof, while the warp is made by a thread wound upon a very thin shuttle.

1884.  [see NIGHTINGALE¹ 1 b].

1884.  W. H. Greenwood, Steel & Iron, 130. It is not unusual to find Swedish pigs whose fracture presents a skin of … chilled iron. Ibid., 233. The Lancashire Hearth or Swedish Finery.

1885.  ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ Valerie’s Fate, i. A many-buttoned, tawny Swedish glove.

1890.  Billings, Med. Dict., Swedish bitters, compound tincture of aloes. Swedish gymnastics, a system of exercises … in which active and passive movements are combined with massage.

1895.  Times (weekly ed.), 16 Feb., 126/4. A poniard … a ‘knuckle-duster,’ and a so-called Swedish knife.

1899.  trans. Wide’s Handbk. Med. Gymnastics, Pref. p. v. The whole civilized world … honours not only the master but also the land to which he [sc. P. H. Ling] belonged by its general adoption of the term ‘Swedish Gymnastics.’

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 605. Galvanism, shampooing and Swedish movements.

1908.  Animal Managem., 109. Alsike,… sometimes called Swedish clover, is often grown instead of the red varieties.

1916.  J. Lewis, Swedish Drill Illustr., 3. A Swedish Drill lesson.

  B.  sb. The language of Sweden.

1605.  Verstegan, Dec. Intell., Ep. to Nation, High, Low, and Eastlandish Teutonic, together with respect vnto the dependant Danish and Swedish.

1605, 1797, 1841.  [see NORWEGIAN B. 2].