Bosworth Toller's

Anglo-Saxon

Dictionary online

æ
þ

sweorfan

  • verb [ strong ]
Dictionary links
Grammar
sweorfan, p. swearf, pl. swurfon; pp. sworfen
Wright's OE grammar
§500;
To rub, scour, file
    Germ. 394, 274.
Swyrfþ limat, Corfen sworfen cut and scoured (of the preparation of a wine-vat), Exon. Th. 410, 24; Rä. 29, 4. Mín heáfod is homere geþuren sworfen feóle, 497, 18; Rä. 87, 2. Cpds. with for, omitted in their place, are added here:?-Forsweorfeþ elimat, i. mundat, Wrt. Voc. ii. 143, 1. Biþ forsworfen vel forgniden demolitur, exterminatur, 138, 63.
Etymology
[In later English the verb has the sense of swerve = to turn (aside) Swerve to no side,
    Gow. 3, 92.
Þe dint swarf,
    Arth. and Merl. 9369.
Heo swarf to Criste migravit ad Christum,
    Kath. 2181.
Cf. Du. zwerven to wander, rove: O. Frs. swerva to move, go. For the old English verb, cf. Goth. af-swairban to wipe out; delere; bi-swairban to wipe: O. Sax. swerƀan to wipe: O. H. Ger. swerban tergere, extergere, siccare: Icel. sverfa to file.]
Similar entries
v. á-, ge-sweorfan.
Linked entries
v.  a-sweorfan ge-sweorfan.
Entry information
Citation

Bosworth, Joseph. “sweorfan.” In An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online, edited by Thomas Northcote Toller, Christ Sean, and Ondřej Tichy. Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2014. https://bosworthtoller.com/29713.

Checked: 0
Full form

Word-wheel

  • sweorfan, v.

Copyright

All the data provided here are free for any purpose. If you use the data for academic purposes, we ask that you kindly cite us as your source. In case you need a large portion of the dictionary data or you need it in a specific format, let us know through the contact form, we are happy to do custom database dumps for researchers.

How to cite

You can cite the entries of the online version of the dictionary, or you can cite the scanned pages of the original paper editions.

  • To cite the online version of the dictionary, click the icon right under the entry.
  • To cite the scanned paper version of the dictionary, click the "show/hide this scanned page" link under the entry, check the scan and use the citation information right above it.