different between swooningly vs swoon

English

Etymology

From Middle English swouningli, zownyngly, equivalent to swooning +? -ly.

Adverb

swooningly (comparative more swooningly, superlative most swooningly)

1. To a degree that elicits swooning.

   swooningly handsome

Related terms

• swoon

English

Alternative forms

• swound (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• enPR: swo?on, IPA^(key): /swu?n/
• Rhymes: -u?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English swoune, swone, from the verb (see below).

Noun

swoon (plural swoons)

1. A faint.
   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula Chapter 21

     "I felt my strength fading away, and I was in a half swoon. How long this horrible thing lasted I know not, but it seemed that a long time must have passed before he took his foul, awful, sneering mouth away. I saw it drip with the fresh blood!"

2. An infatuation.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English swounen, swonen (“to faint”), and aswoune (“in a swoon”), both ultimately from Old English ?esw?gen (“insensible, senseless, dead”), past participle of sw?gan (“to make a sound, overrun, suffocate”) (compare Old English ?sw?gan (“to cover over, overcome”)), from Proto-Germanic *sw?gan? (“to make a noise”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)weh?g?-. Cognate with Low German swogen (“to sigh, groan”), Dutch zwoegen (“to groan, breathe heavily”), dialectal Norwegian søgja (“to whistle, hum, talk loudly”). More at sough.

Verb

swoon (third-person singular simple present swoons, present participle swooning, simple past and past participle swooned) (intransitive)

1. (literally) To faint, to lose consciousness.

   Synonyms: black out, faint, pass out

   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 539:

     I threw myself down on the island ground, like a dead man, and drowned in desolation swooned away, nor did I return to my senses till next morning, when the sun rose and revived me.
2. (by extension) To be overwhelmed by emotion, especially infatuation.
3. To make a moan, sigh, or some other sound expressing infatuation or affection.
   • 2013 (November 2) Pinky 10 minutes into episode 25 ("The Spy Who Slimed Me") of TV series "Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures" per closed captions

     [Swoons] For sure. He's totally dreamy. Uh--but my heart still belongs to you, Pac-ums.

Derived terms

• swooningly

Translations

Further reading

• “swoon”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.