swain
Plural: swains
Noun
- A country youth or a young man in love; a shepherd.
- a man who is the lover of a girl or young woman
- A young man or boy in service; a servant.
- A knight's servant; an attendant.
- A country labourer; a countryman, a rustic.
- A rural lover; a male sweetheart in a pastoral setting.
Examples
- He played SWAIN, a charmingly old-fashioned word, for a respectable score.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English swayn, swain, sweyn, swein, from Old English sweġen (attested also as personal name Swein, Sweġen), from Old Norse sveinn, from Proto-Germanic *swainaz (“relative, young man, servant”), from Proto-Indo-European *swé (“oneself; separate; apart”), thus properly one's own.
Cognate with Danish svend (“hireling, young man”), Norwegian svein (“lad, young man, servant”) Icelandic sveinn (“boy, lad, servant”), Swedish sven (“swain, servant”), Low German Sween, dialectal German Schwein, Old English swān (“swineherd, lad”).
Scrabble Score: 8
swain: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordswain: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
swain: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary
Words With Friends Score: 9
swain: valid Words With Friends Word