Swith

adj, adv

adj, adv ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Strong; vehement. dialectal, obsolete
Adverb
  1. 1
    Quickly, speedily, promptly. dialectal, obsolete

    "As ye disown yon paughty dog, / That bears the keys of Peter, / Then swith! an' get a wife to hug,"

  2. 2
    Strongly; vehemently; very. dialectal, obsolete

Example

More examples

"As ye disown yon paughty dog, / That bears the keys of Peter, / Then swith! an' get a wife to hug,"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English swith, from Old English swīþ (“strong, mighty, powerful, active, severe, violent”), from Proto-West Germanic *swinþ, from Proto-Germanic *swinþaz (“strong”). Cognate with Old Saxon swīth, Middle High German swind (Modern German geschwind (“fast, quick, swift”)), Middle Low German swîde (Modern Low German swied (“very, quite”)), Dutch gezwind (“fast, quick, swift”), West Frisian swiid (“impressive, special”), Old Norse svinnr, sviðr (“quick, clever, understanding, wise”), Gothic 𐍃𐍅𐌹𐌽𐌸𐍃 (swinþs, “strong”). Possibly related to sound.

Etymology 2

From Middle English swith, swithe, from Old English swīþe (“very much, exceedingly, severely, violently, fiercely”), from Proto-West Germanic *swinþā, from Proto-Germanic *swinþê (“strongly”), from Proto-Indo-European *swento- (“active, healthy”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian swied (“very”), West Frisian swiid (“very”), Dutch zwijd (“very, extremely”), Low German swied (“quite, very”), Dutch gezwind (“quick, swift”). Not related to superficially similar English swift.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.