Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “swoon” come from?

Swoon comes from Middle English swoune, whose origin and ultimate etymology remain unknown.

swoon (English): A faint; An infatuation; To faint, to lose...

Definitions

  1. A faint; An infatuation; To faint, to lose...

Ancestry of “swoon”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Low Germanswan—
2Old Saxonswan—
3Proto-West Germanicswanswan
4Proto-Germanicswanazswan
5Proto-Indo-Europeanswenh₂-to sound

Words derived from “swoon”

  • swooning
  • swoony
  • aswoon
  • swooneth
  • swoonest
  • swoonsome
  • swoonily
Every word from Proto-Indo-European swenh₂- →