Now arch. and dial. Forms: 5 swownyd, 5–7 swounde, 6–7 swownd, 7–8 swond, 7 (9 dial.) swoond, 6– swound. [Later form of swoune, SWOON, with excrescent d.] A fainting-fit; = SWOON sb. 1 b.
c. 1440. Alphabet of Tales, 460. He was so flayed he was like hafe dyed, & fell in a swownyd [sic MS.].
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, XX. xxii. 833. Syr Gauwayn synked doun vpon hys one syde in a swounde.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., IV. vii. 9. When she lookt about, and nothing found But darknesse and dread horrour,… She almost fell againe into a swound.
1615. Hieron, Wks., I. 597. As when one is in a swond or a sleepe.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., v. 38. My Lord of Sunderland … got a bruise … which put him in a swound.
1700. Dryden, Pal. & Arc., I. 537. His Spirits are so low, his Voice is drown’d, He hears as from afar, or in a Swound.
1709. in Law’s Mem. (1818), 245, note. She immediately fell into a swond for a considerable time.
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., V. xxii. It flung the blood into my head, And I fell down in a swound.
1856. Aytoun, Bothwell, II. vi. I wakened in the Hermitage Up from my heavy swound [rhyme wound].
1863. Longf., Wayside Inn, I. Finale, 7. The Landlord stirred, As one awakening from a swound.
1897. Stevenson, St. Ives (1898), 165. I believe I nearly went off into a swound.
fig. 1595. Markham, Sir R. Grinvile (Arb.), 73. The bellowing shotte which wakened dead mens swounds.
1600. Breton, Pasquil’s Fooles-Cap, Wks. (Grosart), I. 25/1. While healthfull spirits fall into a swound.
1602. Dekker, Satirom., K j. I Wish … that … Time, Were in a swound; and all his little Houres, Could neuer lift him vp with their poore powers.
1624. Quarles, Sion’s Sonn., Poems (1717), 346. My Faith fell in a swound.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, V. vii. (1647), 241. They feared if Abbeys were only left in a swound, the Pope would soon get hot water to recover them.
1691. E. Taylor, Behmen’s Theos. Philos., viii. 9. As the life lies in a swound in vegetables till revived by the return of the spring.
1817. Shelley, Rev. Islam, IX. xi. A visioned swound, A pause of hope and awe the City bound.
b. without article: = SWOON sb. 1 a. rare.
1880. W. Watson, Prince’s Quest (1892), 61. Long time the Prince was held in swound.
