swaine
swaine is the obsolete spelling of swain.
Meaning of swain
Noun
swain (plural swains)
- A young man or boy in service; a servant.
- A knight's servant; an attendant.
- A country labourer; a countryman, a rustic.
- theſe that ſeeme but ſilly country Swaines,
May haue the leading of so great an hoſte,
As with their waight ſhal make the mountains quake.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
- theſe that ſeeme but ſilly country Swaines,
- A rural lover; a male sweetheart in a pastoral setting.
- Why thus from the Plain does my Shepherdess rove
Forsaking Her Swain and neglecting his love?a. 1722, Matthew Prior, “Chanson Francoise. Translated”, in H. Bunker Wright, Monroe K. Spears, editors, The Literary Works of Matthew Prior, Second edition, volume I, Oxford: Clarendon Press...
- Why thus from the Plain does my Shepherdess rove
Proper noun capitalized: Swaine
Swaine (plural Swaines)
- A surname.
Forms of swaine
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | swaines |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Swaines |
Origin of swaine
Variant spelling of Swain.
Questions about swaine
- What does swaine mean?
- Swaine means a surname.
- What is swaine the obsolete spelling of?
- Swaine is the obsolete spelling of swain.
- What part of speech is swaine?
- Swaine is a proper noun.
Words near swaine in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: swaine (page history and authors); Swaine (page history and authors); swain (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “swaine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/swaine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.