swan

B2 Topic:Animals

US /swɑn/ UK /swɒn/ See IPA manual

Freq #6765

Meanings

1

noun
A large water bird with a long neck and usually white feathers.

A pair of white swans glided across the calm lake.
2

verb
To move around in a relaxed, lazy way, as if you have no worries.

He swans around the office in expensive clothes while everyone else works hard.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Word family

Forms swannedswanningswans

Derived forms swan-diveswan-likeswan-likenessswan-neckswan-neckedswanbrookswanherdswanlikeswanlinessswanlingswanlyswannery

Appears in

Phrases (1)

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black swan
a large Australian swan with dark feathers and a red bill

Adjective + noun

Proverbs (2)

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Simplified etymology

Swan, the bird’s name, is an Old English word. The verb meaning “to wander or move about casually or ostentatiously” arose from the bird name as military slang in the 1940s, initially referring to the free movement of armoured vehicles.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂-der. Proto-Indo-European *swónh₂-osder. Proto-Germanic *swanaz Proto-West Germanic *swan Old English swan Middle English swan English swan From Middle English swan, from Old English swan, from Proto-West Germanic *swan, from Proto-Germanic *swanaz (“swan”, literally “the singing bird”), from Proto-Indo-European *swonh₂-/*swenh₂- (“to sing, make sound”). Cognate with West Frisian swan, Low German Swaan, swan, Dutch zwaan, German Schwan, Danish svane, Norwegian svane, Swedish svan. Related also to Old English ġeswin (“melody, song”), Old English swinsia…

swan Old English *swan Proto-West Germanic *swanaz Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Animals

External links

# swan

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** noun, verb
**IPA (US):** /swɑn/
**IPA (UK):** /swɒn/
**Frequency rank:** 6765

## Meanings
1. A large water bird with a long neck and usually white feathers.
2. To move around in a relaxed, lazy way, as if you have no worries.

## Examples
- A pair of white swans glided across the calm lake.
- He swans around the office in expensive clothes while everyone else works hard.

## Derived Forms
- swan-dive
- swan-like
- swan-likeness
- swan-neck
- swan-necked
- swanbrook
- swanherd
- swanlike
- swanliness
- swanling
- swanly
- swannery

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: swan
- Root: *swan
- Root: *swanaz

## Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂-der. Proto-Indo-European *swónh₂-osder. Proto-Germanic *swanaz Proto-West Germanic *swan Old English swan Middle English swan English swan From Middle English swan, from Old English swan, from Proto-West Germanic *swan, from Proto-Germanic *swanaz (“swan”, literally “the singing bird”), from Proto-Indo-European *swonh₂-/*swenh₂- (“to sing, make sound”). Cognate with West Frisian swan, Low German Swaan, swan, Dutch zwaan, German Schwan, Danish svane, Norwegian svane, Swedish svan. Related also to Old English ġeswin (“melody, song”), Old English swinsia…

## AI Etymology
Swan is from Middle English swan, from Old English swan, from Proto-West Germanic *swan, from Proto-Germanic *swanaz (“swan”, literally “the singing bird”), from Proto-Indo-European *swonh₂-/*swenh₂- (“to sing, make sound”). Cognate with West Frisian swan, Low German Swaan, swan, Dutch zwaan, German Schwan, Danish svane, Norwegian svane, Swedish svan. In present-day use, it can mean a large water bird with a long neck and usually white feathers, or to move around in a relaxed, lazy way, as if you have no worries.

## Topics
- Animals

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