Sc. ? Obs. Also 6 swenȝour, sweyngeour, swingeour, -or, swyngeour, -or, swonger, sweingeor, 7 Sc. swyngour, swynger, swounger. [Of uncertain origin; prob. a cant term and perh. a derivative of early Flem. swentsen ‘vagari’ (Kilian), orig. with the sense of ‘vagabond’; cf. early mod. G. schwänzer ‘otiosus, ambulator,’ schwänzen to go about aimlessly, in thieves’ cant, to ride, travel.] A rogue, rascal, scoundrel.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, lxxxii. 44. Ȝour burgh of beggeris is ane nest, To schout thai swenȝouris will nocht rest.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VIII. Prol. 68. Swingeouris and scurrevagis, swankeis and swanis.
1528. Lyndesay, Dreme, 962. Tha sweir swyngeoris thay tuke of me non heid.
1567. Satir. Poems Reform., viii. 31. Sweingeor, cum, sweir þe saikles sone, Deny þe evill þat þow hes done.
1613. Reg. Privy Council Scotl., X. 3. Quhat wer it to tak the buttoun or blason af his breist, and to lay ane lumder upoun sic a swounger as throw [read thow] art.
1618. Extr. Aberd. Reg. (1848), II. 356. Mr. Henrie wes convict … for iniuring the said Willeame Gray… in calling him febill swynger.
1640. Rothes, in Napier, Mem. Montrose, xiii. (1856), I. 231. That swinger, the Treasurer, has so calumniated the whole estates to his Majesty.
1739. A. Nicol, Poems, Nat. without Art (1766), 19. If some auld swinger snap to speak Of pink-ey’d queans, he gives a Squeek.
attrib. 1542. Records of Elgin (New Spald. Cl., 1903), I. 68. Iohne Innes wrangit in the calling of Nicoll Moressone swenger carle and birsyn carle.
a. 1550. Lyndesay, Descr. Peder Coffeis, 17. Ane swyngeour coife, amangis the wyvis.
