Forms: 1– swan; also 1 swann, swon, suon, 1, 4 suan, 4–5 swane, 4–7 swanne, 6 swonne. [Com. Teut. (not recorded for Gothic): OE. swan, swǫn str. m. = OFris. *swon (EFris. swon, NFris., WFris. swaan), OS. suan, MLG. swan, swâne str. and wk. m., swôn str. m., (LG. swaan), MDu. swâne (Du. zwaan), OHG. *swan, swon str. m., swana wk. f. (MHG. swane, swan wk. m., G. schwan str. m., dial. schwane, schwone f.), ON. svanr (poct.) str. m. (Norw. svon m., svana f., Da. svane m. f., MSw., Sw. svan m.):—OTeut. *swanaz str. m., *swanon- wk. m., or *swanôn- wk. f.
The name was app. applied orig. to the ‘musical’ swan, having the form of an agent-noun f. Teut. swan-:—Idg. swon-: swen-, represented by Skr. svánati (it) sounds, L. sonit (it) sounds, (sonĕre, later sonāre), Ir. sennaim I make music, OE. ʓeswin melody, song, swinsian to make melody.]
I. A large web-footed swimming bird of the genus Cygnus or subfamily Cygninæ of the family Anatidæ, characterized by a long and gracefully curved neck and a majestic motion when swimming; esp. C. olor, gibbus, or mansuetus, with pure white plumage in the adult, black legs and feet, and a red bill surmounted by a black knob, named specifically the Domestic, Mute or Tame Swan.
Other important species are Bewick’s Swan, Cygnus (Olor) bewicki; Black Swan, Chenopsis atratus of Australia, with plumage almost entirely black; Black-necked Swan, Cygnus (Sthenelides) nigricollis or melanocoryphus, with black head and neck, and the rest of the plumage pure white; Trumpeter Swan, Cygnus (Olor) buccinator, of N. America (see TRUMPETER 7); Whistling Swan, (a) of Europe, C. (O.) musicus or ferus, also called Wild Swan, † Elk, or Whooper; (b) of N. America, C. (O.) americanus or columbianus.
Swans’ quills were used for feathering arrows; hence † arrows of swan.
c. 700. Epinal Gloss. (O.E.T.) 700. Olor, suan.
a. 1000. Phoenix, 137 (Gr.). Ne hornas … ne organan, sweʓleoþres ʓeswin ne swanes feðre.
c. 1050. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 459/22. Olor, swon, ilfetu, swan.
c. 1300. Havelok, 1726. Biforn hem com þe beste mete Þat king or cayser wolde ete; Kranes, swannes, ueneysun.
c. 1340. Nominale (Skeat), 838. Cyne recifle, swan tissith.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 206. A fat swan loued he best of any roost.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XII. xi[i] (Tollem. MS.). Schipmen troweþ, þat it bodeþ good, yf þey meteþ swannes in peryl of schipbreche. Ibid. (Bodl. MS.). Þe swanne putteþ doune his heed into þe water and secheþ his mete.
1451. Lincoln Diocese Documents, 57. I wil my nevew Robert constabull haf Al my qwhite Swannes.
1459. Paston Lett., I. 482. viij. schefe arrowys of swanne.
1552. Huloet, Swanne, cygnus … some take this to be the elke, or wilde swanne.
1552–3. in Feuillerat, Revels Edw. VI. (1914), 138. Pennes of swannes quylles.
1564. Proclam. Q. Eliz. Conserv. Swans. It is ordeyned, that no man shal take no gray swannes nor white swannes flying.
1593. in Kempe, Losely MSS. (1836), 308. All straie swans, all swans unmarked, all wild swans, all tame swans that fly, all swans of felons are the master of the swans right.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 438. The Swan with Arched neck Between her white wings mantling proudly, Rowes Her state with Oarie feet.
1674. Ray, Collect. Words, 95. The Elk, Hooper, or wild Swan: Cygnus ferus, this bird is specifically distinct from the tame Swan.
1698. Witsen, in Phil. Trans., XX. 361. Black Swans, Parrots and many Sea-Cows were found there [sc. in Hollandia Nova].
1717. Prior, Alma, I. 379. If You Dine with my Lord May’r, Roast-Beef, and Ven’son is your Fare; Thence You proceed to Swan and Bustard.
1785. Pennant, Arctic Zool., II. 542. The Whistling Swan carries its neck quite erect. Ibid., 544. The Mute Swan, or that which we call Tame, is found in a wild state in some parts of Russia.
1785. Latham, Gen. Synopsis Birds, VI. 438. Black-necked Swan…. The plumage the same with the other Swan, except that the neck is of a velvet black.
1789. Gov. Phillip, Voy. Botany Bay, xi. 98. A black swan … is here by no means uncommon, being found on most of the lakes.
1814. Scott, Lord of Isles, IV. x. So shoots through the morning sky the lark, Or the swan through the summer sea.
1830. Yarrell, in Trans. Linnean Soc., XVI. 453. Side view of the sternum and trachea of Bewick’s Swan.
1860. Tennyson, Tithonus, 4. And after many a summer dies the swan.
b. In classical mythology, the swan was sacred to Apollo (hence Apollo’s swan is used allusively) and to Venus (occas., as by Shakespeare, wrongly ascribed to Juno).
1592. Soliman & Pers., IV. i. 70. But what two Christian Virgins haue we here?… I should haue deemd them Iunoes goodly Swannes, Or Venus milke white Doues.
1593. G. Harvey, New Letter, Wks. (Grosart), I. 277. The brauest man is … A Lion in the field, a Lamme in the towne: A Ioues Eagle in feude, an Apollos Swanne in society.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., I. iii. 77. Like Iunos Swans, Still we went coupled and inseperable.
2. fig. or allusively. a. Applied to persons or things, in reference to the pure white plumage of the swan taken as a type of faultlessness or excellence; often in contrast to crow or goose.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 17371 (Cott.). His clething als þe suan his suire.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sompn. T., 222. Me thynketh they been lyk lovinyan Fat as a whale, and walkynge as a swan. Ibid., Manciple’s T., 29. Whit was this Crowe, as a snow whit swan.
14[?]. Sir Beues (Pynson), 2308. The bysshop crystened Iosian, That was as whyte as any swan.
1457. Harding, Chron., in Eng. Hist. Rev., Oct. (1912), 745. Iustyse of pese thay bene, as I deme can, As now on days men call the blacke oxe swan.
1587, 1621. [see GOOSE sb. 1 d].
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. ii. 92. Compare her face with some that I shall show, And I will make thee thinke thy Swan a Crow.
a. 1617. Hieron, Doctrines Triall, Wks. 1620, II. 16. Though multitudes of good points of Doctrine … fall from vs, as water from a Swannes backe.
1679. Prance, Addit. Narr. Pop. Plot, 15. Thus the Accused are all Swans, and the blackness of Guilt is thrown upon the Witnesses for the King.
1858. Eclectic Rev., Ser. VI. III. 426. Now it is East, one of the author’s white swans … who is guilty of the act of malice we denounce.
1876. Longf., Venice, 1. White swan of cities, slumbering in thy nest.
1884. [see GOOSE sb. 1 d].
1912. Frances Balfour, Life & Lett. of Jas. MacGregor, xvi. 509. The assistants were to him all ‘swans’ as soon as they were connected with him or his church.
b. In allusions to the fabulous belief that the swan sings immediately or shortly before its death.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Anel. & Arc., 346. Þe swane … Ageynist his dethe shall synge his penavnse.
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xxiv. 511. What eileth now that vnhappy folke that make soo grete feest, I byleve that they ben as the swanne is when he shall deye.
1601. Shaks., Phœnix & Turtle, 15. let the priest in surples white, That defunctive musicke can, Be the death-devining swan. Ibid. (1604), Oth., V. ii. 247. I will play the Swan, And dye in Musicke.
1621. Middleton, Sun in Aries, Wks. (Bullen), VII. 348. Illustrated by proper emblems … as … Harmony by a swan.
a. 1718. Prior, 2nd Hymn Callimachus, 8. And hov’ring Swans, their Throats releas’d From native Silence, Carol Sounds harmonious.
1842. Tennyson, Morte D’Arthur, 266. Like some full-breasted swan … fluting a wild carol ere her death.
c. Hence used for: A ‘singer,’ bard, poet.
Chiefly in specific designations derived from river-names, cf. the Swan of Avon (Avon’s Swan) = Shakespeare. Also, the Mantuan Swan = Virgil.
Cf. L. cycnus (Horace has Dircæus cycnus = Pindar), Gr. κύκνος (Anthol. Pal. vii. 19, of Alcman).
1612. C. Brooke, Elegy Pr. Henry, ix. Yee Isis swannes then, let not Lethe’s fowles Prophane his name; but may this prince’s glory … Be sung of you in a Mineruall story.
1623. B. Jonson, in Shaks. Wks. (1st Fol.). Sweet Swan of Auon! what a sight it were To see thee in our waters yet appeare, And make those flights vpon the bankes of Thames.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon. (1692), II. 292. William D’Avenant … whom we … may justly stile the sweet Swan of Isis.
1728. Pope, Dunc., III. 20. Taylor,… (Once swan of Thames, tho’ now he sings no more). [Cf. ibid., III. 155 Each Cygnet sweet, of Bath and Tunbridge race, Whose tuneful whistling makes the waters pass.]
1767. Mickle, Concub., xvi. Avons Swan of peerlesse Memorie.
1781. Cowper, Table-T., 557. Ages elaps’d ere Homer’s lamp appear’d, And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard.
d. Black swan: a proverbial phrase (after Juvenal, Sat., vi. 164) for something extremely rare (or non-existent); a rarity, rara avis.
[1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XII. xii. (Bodl. MS.), lf. 120/1. The swanne hatte signus in latine and Olor in grewe, for he is al white in feþeres. for no man findeþ a blacke swanne.
1576. Bedingfield, trans. Cardanus’ Comf., 4. What man is so mad as wil say the swan is black?]
1579. Gosson, Sch. Abuse (Arb.), 30. The abuse of such places [sc. theatres] was so great, that for any chaste liuer to haunt them was a black swan, and a white crowe.
1606. Day, Ile of Guls (1881), 54. The rare … Mopsa, the black swan of beauty & madghowlet of admiration.
1694. N. H., Ladies Dict., 192/1. (bis) Husbands without faults (if such black Swans there be).
1764. Wesley, Jrnl., 2 Oct. I breakfasted … with Mr. B—, a black swan, an honest lawyer!
1890. W. E. Norris, Misadventure, ix. He may not be such a black swan as Aunt Susan makes him out.
3. a. A figure of a swan, as in heraldry.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 58. Wyth scheldez of wylde swyn, swanez & cronez.
a. 1400. Octouian, 1481. Har armes wer gowles and swan, Trappure and scheld.
a. 1490. Botoner, Itin. (Nasmith, 1778), 217. Venella apud signum le swan.
1581. Pettie, trans. Guazzo’s Civ. Conv., II. (1586), 108 b. Whereas that hath a flying swan,… this hath besides the shadow of the same swan.
1627. Peacham, Compl. Gentl., xiii. 184. Three Roses Argent betweene as many Swans proper.
b. Astron. The northern constellation Cygnus.
1551. Recorde, Cast. Knowl. (1556), 264. By it [sc. Lyra] is the Swanne, named Cygnus.
1606. N. B[axter], Sydney’s Ourania, D 4. The siluered Swan that dying sweetly sings, Adorn’s with twelue starres her beautifull wings.
1670. Phil. Trans., V. 2023. The New Star near the Beak of the Swan.
1868. Lockyer, Guillemin’s Heavens, 328.
† c. Plumed swan: a color in alchemy. Obs.
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., II. ii. Your seuerall colours … Of … the crow, The peacocks taile, the plumed swan.
4. attrib. and Comb.: simple attrib., as swan-bevy, feast, -feather, -flesh, -pie; swan-fashion adv.; objective, as swan-feeder (attrib.), -hunting, -shooting; swan-eating adj.; instrumental, etc., as swan-clad, -drawn, -poor, -proud adjs.; similative and parasynthetic, as swan-bosomed, -plumed, -sweet, -tuned, -winged adjs.
1897. H. N. Howard, Footsteps Proserpine, 111. A wench … *Swan-bosomed.
1646. G. Daniel, Poems, Wks. (Grosart), I. 27. Swift Arne, the Thuscan Soile, noe more shall beat, Nor *Swan-clad Po run Sweet.
1812. W. Tennant, Anster F., I. 3. The *swan-drawn car.
1641. Milton, Reform., I. Wks. 1851, III. 18. His canary-sucking and *swan-eating palat.
1849. D. J. Browne, Aner. Poultry Yd. (1855), 242. They would probably please most palates better, if cooked and served *swan fashion. Ibid., 250. The *‘swan feasts,’ which sometimes have occurred in England, have been solemnised in the course of the month of September.
c. 1465. Chevy Chase, 96. Þe *swane fethars þat his arrowe bar with his hart blood þe wear wete.
1557. Grimald, in Tottel’s Misc. (Arb.), 117. *Swan-feeder Temms no furder course can passe.
1557. Edgeworth, Serm., 91. They were forbidden … *swanne flesh.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4463/2. The King left Yagersburg on Wednesday last, in order to take the Diversion of *Swan Hunting.
1870. Gillmore, trans. Figuier’s Reptiles & Birds, 254. Swan-hunting takes place during the season of moulting.
1640. J. D., Knave in Graine, III. i. H j b. Wast not an excellent *Swan-pie?
1679. R. Montagu, in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), I. 331. My wife gives your Lordship her humble thanks for the swan pie.
1600. Tourneur, Transf. Metam., Epil. 9. *Swan-plum’d Phœbe [= the moon] gards the star-faire night.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. iv. 364. While tow’rd the Sea, our (then *Swan-poorer) Thames Bare down my Bark upon her ebbing streams. Ibid. (a. 1618), Sonnets, VII. 9. Sweet Petrarch’s Po, and *swan-proud Sein.
1874. J. W. Long, Amer. Wild-fowl, iii. 71. An excellent decoy for *swan-shooting … is an old white shirt drawn over a bunch of brush.
1596. Fitz-Geffrey, Sir F. Drake (1881), 7. Then let thy *swan-sweet voice sing to a Drake.
1604. Scoloker, Daiphantus (1880), 23. Daiphantus hearing such a *Swan-tun’d voyce, Was rauisht.
1798. Sotheby, trans. Wieland’s Oberon (1826), II. 215. Through the air the *swan wing’d chariot flew.
b. Special Combs.: swan-animalcule, an infusorian of either of the families Trachelocercidæ and Tracheliidæ, esp. Trachelocerca olor, having a long flexible and extensible anterior prolongation like a swan’s neck; swan-down (see SWAN’S-DOWN); swan-drop, (a) the knob on a swan’s bill; in quot. 1821 transf.; (b) = swan-shot; swan-egg = swan’s-egg; swan-flower = swan-plant (a); swan-goose, a large long-necked species of goose from Eastern Asia, Cygnopsis cygnoides, also called Chinese or Guinea goose; swan-mussel, a common species of freshwater mussel, Anodonta cygnea; † swan-pen [cf. MDu. swan(en)penne swan’s quill, swanenpipe swan’s quill, esp. one used as a drain-pipe] = swan-quill; also, a pipe of the width of a swan-quill (cf. PEN sb.2 3 a) for draining; swan-plant, (a) an orchid of the S. American genus Cycnoches, having flowers with a long curved column like a swan’s neck; (b) a W. Indian species of birthwort, Aristolochia grandiflora, also called Pelican-flower; swan-post [ad. F. poste; cf. Cotgr., ‘Postes, big haile-shot for Herons, Geese, and other such great fowle’] = swan shot; swan-quill, a swan’s feather, or a pen made of one; swan’s bath (pseudo-arch.), the water, the sea; † swan’s beak, bill, a kind of surgical forceps (cf. CRANE’S-BILL 2); swan’s egg (also swan-egg), name of a variety of pear; swan’s feather, collectors’ name for a species of moth, Porrectaria cygnipennella, with pure white wings (Rennie, 1832); swan-shot, a large size of shot, used for shooting swans; swan-song [after G. schwanen(ge)sang, schwanenlied], a song like that fabled to be sung by a dying swan; the last work of a poet or musician, composed shortly before his death; † swan’s-tongue, an old name for hemp-nettle (Galeopsis Tetrahit). See also SWANHERD, etc.
1865. T. R. Jones, in Intell. Observ., March, 121. A *Swan animalcule (Trachelocerca olor).
1821. Blackw. Mag., IX. 62. Hazlitt I own is not pale, because of his rubicund *swan-drops.
1865. Pall Mall G., No. 187. 9/2. Fire-arms … loaded with heavy swan-drops.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., *Swan-flower, of Surinam, Cycnoches Loddigesii.
1678. Ray, Willughby’s Ornith., 360. The *Swan-Goose: Anser cygnoides Hispanicus seu Guineensis.… It is a stately Bird, walking with the Head and Neck decently erected.
1804. Bewick, Brit. Birds, II. 281. Swan Goose. Chinese, Spanish, Guinea, or Cape Goose.
1777. Pennant, Brit. Zool., IV. 96. Mytilus Cygneus. *Swan M[ussel] with a thin brittle shell, very broad and convex, marked with concentric striæ.
1864. Intell. Observ., Sept., 67. The swan-mussel (Anodonta) … is one of the largest of our bivalve molluscs.
1426. Cov. Leet Bk., 108. Þat ther be no pype [to a conduit] more then a *swan penne.
c. 1480. Henryson, Mor. Fab., Lion & Mouse, Prol. vi. Ane roll of paper in his hand he bair; Ane swannis pen [ed. 1621 Swane-pen] stikkand vnder his eir.
1841. Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), II. 135. Cycnoches Loddigesii. This is the *swan plant.
1848. Schomburgk, Hist. Barbados, 5621. Aristolochia grandiflora…. Jamaica, Trinidad. The Swan Plant.
1846. C. St. John, Wild Sports Highl., 252. With the double-barrel loaded with *swan-post.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 454. Crow quills for draughtsmen, as well as *swan quills, are prepared in the same way.
1900. Weyman, Sophia, xxv. She unearthed a pewter ink-pot and an old swan-quill.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., iv. Take to the sea like your forefather, and come over the *swan’s bath with me!
1631. H. C[rooke], Expl. Instrum. Chirurg., 43. Another Instrument called the *Swans beake, the sides whereof are opened by a screw when it is insinuated into the wound. Ibid., 41. Those instruments framed to draw out bullets … out of wounds, are almost all called by one generall name, Bills or Beakes, as the Crowes Bill, the Cranes Bill, the Drakes Bill, the Parrots Bill, and the *Swans Bill.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. iii. 400. These Pears. [Oct.] Green Sugar, Besidery, *Swan’s Egg,… and others.
1767. Abercrombie, Ev. Man his own Gardener (1803), 672/2. La Marquis, Swan Egg, Virgoleuse, [etc.].
1843. J. Smith, Forest Trees, 163. Swan’s egg is a small beautifully shaped pear.
1858. Geo. Eliot, Scenes Cler. Life, 232. Swan-egg pears.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 235. Large *Swan-Shot, as big as small Pistol Bullets.
1821. Scott, Pirate, viii. She will put a hundred swan-shot through a Dutchman’s cap at eighty paces.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, III. iv. 57. He is found with an empty bag, and a charge of swan-shot through his heart.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., III. vii. The Phoenix soars aloft,… or, as now, she sinks, and with spheral *swan-song immolates herself in flame. Ibid. (1837), Fr. Rev., I. II. viii. We will call his Book [Saint-Pierre’s ‘Paul et Virginie’] the swan-song of old dying France.
1890. Spectator, 10 May. When Tennyson threw his swan-song [‘Crossing the Bar’] … before an instantly appreciating world.
c. 1450. Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.), 80/2. Herba hircina, i. tetrahit … anglice *swanestonge.
c. with reference to the keeping of swans and swan-upping, as swan-book, -hook, -house, -keeper, laws, -master, -pit, -rights, -warden, yard.
1524. in Archaeologia (1812), XVI. 156. That there shall no Swannerd keep, or carry any swan book, but the King’s Swannerd.
c. 1560. in Proc. Archæol. Inst., Lincoln (1850), 305. It is lawful for every owner, swanmaister, or swanheard, to pull up, or cut downe ye birdnet. Ibid., 306. If any person … be found carrijng any swanhooke, and the same person being no swanheard [etc.]. Ibid. They shall pay a land bird to the king, and be obedient to all swan lawes.
1600–1. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), III. 594. Pro mending the Swanhouse walles iiijd.
1793. in Blackw. Mag., Dec. (1888), 862/1. [A minute in the books of the Hospital Trust [of St. Helen’s, Norwich] says that a new] swan-yard [was constructed in 1793].
1812. R. Surtees, in J. Raine, Mem. J. Hodgson (1857), I. 85. Swan-oats are regularly paid by the adjacent properties to the lessee of the old swan-house on the borders of the morass.
1843. Yarrell, Brit. Birds, III. 129. The principal governing officers of the [Vintners’] company for the time being are, a Master and three Wardens, the junior Warden of the year being called the Swan Warden.
1848. Bromehead, in Proc. Archæol. Inst., Lincoln (1850), 301, note. The swanhook, attached to a long pole, by means of which the bird might readily be captured by the neck, is frequently introduced as a symbol amongst the varied devices composing the swanmarks in the MS.
1883. G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads, xxix. 202. The swan-pit, at the back of the Old Man’s Hospital, St. Helen’s, Norwich. This pit is an oblong pool or tank,… with perpendicular sides…. Here they [sc. cygnets] are fattened for the table, or reared for transmission to their future homes.
1888. Blackw. Mag., Dec., 861/2. There are several swan-pits belonging to the various owners of swan-rights on the Norwich rivers. Ibid., 862/1. From 80 to 100 cygnets may be seen … undergoing the process of fattening in the swan-pit.
1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 2 Aug., 2/1. Fourteen years ago the R.S.P.C.A. prosecuted the swan-masters.
d. with reference to the stories in Aryan mythology of supernatural maidens having the power of transforming themselves into swans by means of a robe of swan’s feathers or of a magic ring or chain, as swan-bride, -hero, -maid, -maiden (after G. schwanenjungfrau), -wife, -woman; swan-coat, -ring, -shift (after G. schwanenhemd, -ring); also applied to a personage in mediæval story, like Lohengrin, accompanied by a swan, as swan-knight (= knight of the swan, G. schwanenritter, F. chevalier au cygne).
1862. H. Marryat, Year in Sweden, lxiv. II. 389, note. The smith … fancied his swan-bride had returned.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., xii. 346, note. Three women sit on the shore with their swan-coats beside them, ready to turn into swans and fy away.
1868. Baring-Gould, Myths Mid. Ages, Ser. I. ix. 298. These swan-maidens are the houris of the Vedic heaven; receiving to their arms the souls of the heroes. Ibid., 302. At one time there is but a single swan-woman, at another the sky is dark with their numerous wings.
1880. Stallybrass, trans. Grimm’s Teut. Mythol., I. xvi. 427. The swan-hero forsakes his wife the moment she asks the forbidden question. Ibid., Many tales of swan-wives still live among the Norse people. Ibid., 428. When they [sc. swan-maidens] bathe in the cooling flood, they lay down on the bank the swan-ring, the swan-shift.
1889. R. B. Anderson, trans. Rydberg’s Teut. Mythol., 60. Among these swan-maids was Sif.
1911. Encycl. Brit., XXI. 133/1. A conclusion, in which the Swan Knight, Lohengrin, is made Parzival’s son.
