sweb means A swoon. It carries an Arena rating of 1353, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, sweb ranks #912 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #2,577 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,662 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #2,699 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words.
sweb is pronounced /swɛb/.
Why “sweb” is a great word
A deep swoon or faint, or the act of succumbing to one, whose roots trace to the Middle English *swebben*, from Old English *swebban* (“to put to sleep, lull, kill”), from Proto-West Germanic *swabbjan*, from Proto-Germanic *swabjaną*, *swēbijaną (“to lull, put to sleep”), from Proto-Indo-European *swep-, *sup- (“to sleep”), and first attested as a verb c. 1599. Unlike “swoon,” that more common lapse, or “slumber,” that gentle rest, “sweb” is an archaic arrest, a sleep imposed by overwhelming force. It is the sudden sag of a knight struck by a philter, the utter stillness that follows a crushing revelation, or the mortal lullaby sung by extreme cold—a surrender to unconsciousness that feels less like a departure than an erasure.
Etymology
From Middle English swebben (“to sleep, swoon”), from Old English swebban (“to put to sleep, lull, kill”), from From Proto-West Germanic *swabbjan, from Proto-Germanic *swabjaną, *swēbijaną (“to lull, put to sleep”), from Proto-Indo-European *swep-, *sup- (“to sleep”). Cognate with Icelandic svefja (“to put to sleep, lull, soothe”), Latin sōpiō (“put to sleep, lull”, verb). Related to sweven.
verb
- To swoon; faint.e.g.“Hoo swebbed, all droked in sweat, frae the heat o' the desert sun.”
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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