Dictionary

sweven en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈswɛvən/

Etymology

From Middle English sweven, from Old English swefn (“sleep, dream, vision”), from Proto-West Germanic *swefn, from Proto-Germanic *swefną, *swefnaz (“sleep”), from Proto-Indo-European *swépnos, *supnós (“dream”), from Proto-Indo-European *swep- (“to sleep”). Cognate with Dutch suf (“drowsy”), Middle High German swēb (“sleep”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål søvn (“sleep”), Faroese svøvnur (“sleep”), Icelandic svefn, svöfn (“sleep; dream”), Norwegian Nynorsk svebn, svemn, svevn, svøbn, svømn, sømn, søvn (“sleep”), Swedish sömn (“sleep”), Latin somnus (“sleep, slumber, drowsiness”), Sanskrit स्वप्न (svápna, “sleep; dream”), Ancient Greek ὕπνος (húpnos, “sleep”).

Meanings

1. (archaic) A dream.
   • [The queen] went in to the Sultan and assured him that their daughter had suffered during all her wedding-night from swevens and nightmare. 1885, Sir Richard Burton, transl., The Thousand Nights and One Night:
   • The kynge with the honderd knyghtes mette a wonder dreme two nyghtes a fore the bataille / that ther blewe a grete wynde & blewe doun her castels and her townes / and after that cam a water and bare hit all awey / Alle that herd of the sweuen said / it was a token of grete batayll 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xiij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book I:
2. (archaic) A vision.
   • The Golden Legend And then she said: Sir, hast thou seen the sweven that I have seen?

Forms

Deriveds

swevening

Relateds

sweb