swene
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Unknown. Appears, at about the same time, in both the Chester Plays and the Auchinleck manuscript.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
swene (plural not attested)
Usage notes[edit]
"Swene" is a fossil word and, at present, can probably only be used and understood by a very few deeply rural speakers in the northern parts of England. It is generally found in the archaic phrase make nah swene.
References[edit]
- James Orchard Halliwell (1847) “SWENE”, in A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs, and Ancient Customs, from the Fourteenth Century. [...] In Two Volumes, volumes II (J–Z), London: John Russell Smith, […], →OCLC, page 837, column 1.
- The Legend of Pope Gregory