swear – English adjective declension

English adjective forms of swear

Adjective: swear

Comparison Forms

Synthetic

Comparativeswearer
Superlativeswearest

Perifrastic

Comparativemore swear
Superlativemost swear

Sample Sentences

  • Rise up gueedewife, an dinna be sweer, / B'soothan, b'soothan, / An deal yir chirity t' the peer, / An awa b'mony a toon. [1881, Walter Gregor, chapter XXII, in Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-east of Scotland, London: Folk-Lore Society, page 161:]
  • But faith, to glump ye I'd be sweer / I wish ye luck o' this new year [1805, John Stagg, “A New Year's Epistle”, in Miscellaneous Poems, Workington: W. Borrowdale, page 139:]
  • My father will maybe be a wee sweer to take ye in, but ye maun make your way on him the best gate ye can; he has the best stockit pantry on Teviot head, but a bit of a Laidlaw's fault, complaining aye maist when he has least reason. [1822, James Hogg, The Three Perils of Man:]
  • For if my Pen shall turn as Sweir's their Purse / I fear this is the last I'll write in Verse [1714, Robert Smith, Poems of Controversy Betwixt Episcopacy and Presbytery, 2nd edition, Edinburgh: R. Syme & Son, published 1853, page 61:]

Adjectives inflected like swear

wholsom, seldom, scared, solemn, silent, beloved, uptight, perfect, useless, up-tight, selfish, distinct, discreet, Dutch, reckless, bumfuck, worthless, slender, faithfull, shallow, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)

Etymology

1. From Middle English swere, swer, swar, from Old English swǣr, swār (“heavy, heavy as a burden, of great weight, oppressive, grievous, painful, unpleasant, sad, feeling or expressing grief, grave, slow, dull, sluggish, slothful, indolent, inactive from weakness, enfeebled, weak”), from Proto-West Germanic *swār, from Proto-Germanic *swēraz (“heavy”), from Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“heavy”).
2. Cognate with West Frisian swier (“heavy”), Dutch zwaar (“heavy, hard, difficult”), German schwer (“heavy, hard, difficult”), Danish svær (“heavy, hard, severe”), Swedish svår (“heavy, hard, severe”), Latin sērius (“earnest, grave, solemn, serious”) and Albanian varrë (“wound, plague”). See: Dutch Adjectives 'zwaar', German Adjectives 'schwer', Swedish Adjectives 'svår', Latin Adjectives 'sērius'.