swan's road en · NOUN
Etymology
Calque of Old English swanrād, from swan (“swan”) + rād (“road”).
Meanings
-
(literary, qualifier:kenning, rare) The ocean; the open sea.
Cwæð, hē gūðcyning Ofer swanrāde Sēcean wolde, Mǣrne þēoden, Þā him wæs manna þearf.
1838 July, [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow], “Art[icle] IV.—1. A Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language, […]. By the Rev. J[oseph] Bosworth. […] 2. King Alfred’s Anglo-Saxon Version of Boëthius, “De Consolatione Philosophiæ”; […] By J. S. Cardale. […]”, in The North American Review, volume XLVII, number C, Boston, Mass.: Otis, Broaders, & Co., […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 104, column 2:Ship with me boldly, Follow me gaily, Over the swan's road[.]
1866, C[harles] Kingsley, “How Hereward Succoured a Princess of Cornwall”, in Hereward the Wake, “Last of the English.” […], volume I, London; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 124:He announced his plan: to sail the swan's road and search out that king, the famous prince who needed defenders.
1999, Seamus Heaney, transl., Beowulf: A New Verse Translation, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, published 2000, →ISBN, page 15, lines 199–201:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| the swan's road | canonical | lexicographic |