sword

English Online Dictionary. What means sword‎? What does sword mean?

English

Alternative forms

• swerd, sweard, swoord, swoorde, sworde (all obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English sword, swerd, from Old English sweord (“sword”), from Proto-West Germanic *swerd, from Proto-Germanic *swerdą (“sword”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂w- (“sharp”). Cognate with Scots swuird, swerd, sword (“sword”), North Frisian swird (“sword”), West Frisian swurd (“sword”), Dutch zwaard (“sword”), Low German Sweerd, Schwert (“sword”), German Schwert (“sword”), Danish sværd, Norwegian sverd, Swedish svärd (“sword”), Icelandic sverð (“sword”), Old East Slavic свьрдьлъ (svĭrdĭlŭ, “drill”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA^(key): [sɔːd]
• (Standard Southern British, MLE) IPA^(key): [soːd]
• (Ireland) IPA^(key): [soːɹd]
• (General American, Scotland) IPA^(key): [sɔɹd]
• (Indic, spelling pronunciation) IPA^(key): /swɒɾɖ/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /so(ː)ɹd/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /soəd/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /swɔːrd/ = sward
• Homophones: soared, (non-rhotic, horse–hoarse merger) sawed
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)d
• (Early Modern)
  • IPA^(key): /s(w)ɔːrd/, /s(w)uːrd/, /swɒrd/ (from Old English sword, ancestral to most modern pronunciations)
  • IPA^(key): /swʊrd/ (from Old English swurd)
  • IPA^(key): /swɛrd/, /swɛːrd/ (from Old English swe(o)rd, corresponding to the spelling swerd, sweard)

Noun

sword (plural swords)

1. A long bladed weapon with a grip and typically a pommel and crossguard (together forming a hilt), which is designed to cut, stab, slash and/or hack.
2. A suit in certain playing card decks, particularly those used in Spain and Italy, or those used for divination.
   1. A card of this suit.
3. (weaving) One of the end bars by which the lay of a hand loom is suspended.

Coordinate terms

• (weaponry): bayonet, claymore, cutlass, dagger, epee, épée, falchion, foil, katana, knife, machete, rapier, sabre, saber, scimitar, vorpal, yataghan, yatagan

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Japanese: ソード
• → Maori: hoari

Translations

Verb

sword (third-person singular simple present swords, present participle swording, simple past and past participle sworded)

1. (uncommon) To stab or cut with a sword

References

Anagrams

• words

Middle English

Alternative forms

• swerd, sweord, sord, sworde, zuord

Etymology

From Old English sword, a Mercian form of sweord (which some forms are directly from), from Proto-West Germanic *swerd, from Proto-Germanic *swerdą.

Pronunciation

• (from OE sword) IPA^(key): /swɔrd/, /swoːrd/
• (from OE swe(o)rd) IPA^(key): /swɛrd/, /swɛːrd/, /sweːrd/
• (from OE swurd) IPA^(key): /s(w)urd/

Noun

sword (plural swordes or (early) sweorden)

1. sword, sabre
2. (figuratively) Military might or power.

Descendants

• English: sword (obsolete swerd, sweard)
• Scots: swuird, swurd, swerd

References

• “sword, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-16.

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sword/, [sworˠd]

Noun

sword n (nominative plural sword) (Mercian)

1. Alternative form of sweord