Etymology

swart

S1W4A1R1T1

Today it means: Of a dark hue; moderately black; swarthy; tawny. Full definition →

Middle English swart ← Old English sweart ← Proto-West Germanic *swart
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

swart · adjective, noun1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*swerd-
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*swartaz
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*swart
  4. Old English · inherited fromsweart
  5. Middle English · inherited fromswart
  6. English todayswart

From Middle English swart, from Old English sweart, from Proto-West Germanic *swart, from Proto-Germanic *swartaz, from Proto-Indo-European *swerd-. Doublet of Schwarz.

swart · verb2

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*swartōną
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*swartōn
  3. Old English · inherited fromsweartian
  4. Middle English · inherited fromswarten
  5. English todayswart

From Middle English swarten, from Old English sweartian, from Proto-West Germanic *swartōn, from Proto-Germanic *swartōną. By surface analysis, swart + -en.

swart · noun3

Variant of sward.

Swart · proper noun4

English and Dutch surname, from swart (“dark-haired, dark-skinned, swarthy”).

Words from the same roots

Old Englishsweart all →

SwarthmoorSwartleySwartwood

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.