swain

Meaning

Noun

• A young man or boy in service; a servant.
• A knight's servant; an attendant.
• A country labourer; a countryman, a rustic.
• A rural lover; a male sweetheart in a pastoral setting.

Origin

• From Middle English swayn, swain, sweyn, swein, from Old English sweġen (attested also as personal name Swein, Sweġen), from Old Norse sveinn, from Proto-Germanic *swainaz, from Proto-Indo-European *swé, thus properly one's own. Cognate with Danish svend, Norwegian svein Icelandic sveinn, Swedish sven, Low German Sween, dialectal German Schwein, Old English swān.