swelter · noun — intense heat. It carries an Arena rating of 1802, earned across 102 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, swelter ranks #677 of 17,166 for Most Vivid Words, #1,104 of 17,171 for Scariest Words, #1,897 of 17,187 for Most Malleable Words, #2,245 of 17,162 for Most Elegant Words.
swelter is pronounced /ˈswɛl.tə/.
Why “swelter” is a great word
SWELTER — [Verb] To suffer from oppressive, often humid, heat. From Middle English *swelteren*, a frequentative form of Middle English *swelten* ("to die, faint"), from Old English *sweltan* ("to die"), from Proto-West Germanic *sweltan*, from Proto-Germanic *sweltaną* ("to die"), from the Proto-Indo-European root *swel-* ("to burn, smolder"). First attested in verb form around 1403. Unlike "broil," which conjures a direct, licking assault of flame, or "languish," which dwells in a diffuse, romanticized decline, to swelter is to be passively stewed in the atmosphere's own exhalation. It is the damp linen clinging to the small of your back, the collective sigh of a room where air has turned to broth, and the heavy-lidded stillness of a city pavement at noon—a minor, daily rehearsal for the dissolution prefigured in its very etymology.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
From Middle English swelteren, frequentative form of Middle English swelten (“to die; faint”), from Old English sweltan (“to die”), from Proto-West Germanic *sweltan, from Proto-Germanic *sweltaną (“to die”), from Proto-Indo-European *swel- (“to smolder; burn”), equivalent to swelt + -er (frequentative suffix).
noun
- Intense heat.e.g.“The summer swelter did not relent until late in September, most years.”
verb
- To suffer terribly from intense heat.
- To perspire greatly from heat.
- To cause to faint, to overpower, as with heat.e.g.“It was so rare a piece of fun
To see the swelter'd cattle run” — 1796, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Fire, Famine, and Slaughter:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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