swear
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /swɛə(ɹ)/
ipa: /swɛɚ/
ipa: /sweː/
note: without the cheer–chair merger
ipa: /sweə/
note: New Zealand, cheer–chair merger
ipa: /swiə/
ipa: /sweɹ/
note: Lancashire, fair–fur merger
ipa: /swɜː(ɹ)/
rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
Forms: form: swears
form: swearing
form: swore
form: sware
form: sworn
form: swore
Etymology: From Middle English sweren, swerien, from Old English swerian (“to swear, take an oath of office”), from Proto-West Germanic *swarjan, from Proto-Germanic *swarjaną (“to speak, swear”), from Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“to swear”).
Cognate with West Frisian swarre (“to swear”), Saterland Frisian swera (“to swear”), Dutch zweren (“to swear, vow”), Low German swören (“to swear”), sweren, German schwören (“to swear”), Danish sværge, Swedish svära (“to swear”), Icelandic sverja (“to swear”), Russian свара (svara, “quarrel”). Also cognate to Albanian var (“to hang, consider, to depend from”) through Proto-Indo-European.
The original sense in all Germanic languages is “to take an oath”. The sense “to use bad language” developed in Middle English and is based on the Christian prohibition against swearing in general (cf. Matthew 5:33-37) and invoking God’s name in particular (i.e. frequent swearing was considered similar to the use of obscene words).
Senses: examples: text: The knight swore not to return to the palace until he had found the treasure.
synonyms: pledge
vow
glosses: To take an oath, to promise intensely, solemnly, and/or with legally binding effect.
examples: text: The witness swore that the person she had seen running out of the bank was a foot shorter than the accused.
synonyms: depose
affirm
testify
glosses: To take an oath that an assertion is true.
examples: text: I swear I don't know what you're talking about.
text: My little brother is such a pest, I swear.
text: The Bat—they called him the Bat.[…]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.
ref: 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 01:
glosses: To promise intensely that something is true; to strongly assert.
examples: text: Let the witness be sworn.
glosses: To administer an oath to (a person).
examples: text: An Australian was once appointed on contract, but he swore too much.
ref: 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 38:
synonyms: curse
execrate
turn the air blue
glosses: To use offensive, profane, or obscene language.
Synonyms: word: swear
word: blaspheme
word: curse
word: curse like a pagan
word: curse like a trooper
word: curse like a sailor
word: cuss
word: eff and blind
word: eff and jeff
word: execrate
word: imprecate
word: swear like a cutter
word: swear like a pagan
word: swear like a trooper
word: swear like a sailor
word: turn the air blue
word: vilify
Hyponyms: word: drop the f-bomb
word: outswear
Derived terms: answer
beswear
could have sworn
forswear
I swear
pinky swear
reswear
say you swear
swear at
swear blind
swear by
swear down
swear in
swear like a cutter
swear like a pagan
swear like a sailor
swear like a trooper
swear off
swear on
swear on a stack
swear on a stack of Bibles
swear out
swear the peace
swear to God
swear upon
swear word
sweary
Related terms: word: cuss up a blue streak
word: pardon my French
word: potty mouth
word: swearing
word: swear word