Sweald

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An archaic past-tense form of an Old English verb meaning to burn, scorch, or be consumed by heat
2. The old past tense of a verb from early English meaning to be burned or scorched by fire or heat
3. A historical English past form of a verb that once described something being singed or scorched

Etymology: "Sweald" is an Old English word meaning "burning" or "scorching," and it is the past participle of "sweltan," "to die" in the sense of being overcome by heat or hunger. Over time, this sense of being scorched or burned out faded in English. The modern word "swelter," meaning to suffer from oppressive heat, descends from the same root family, and the verb "swelt" survived in older English dialect and literature to describe dying. The word's shape reflects the Old English verb "sweltan," which belongs to the Germanic family of words for burning and heat. Its participle "sweald" appears in the surviving Old English texts, where it describes things scorched or consumed by fire. Because Old English is recorded in limited manuscripts, the exact range of its uses is known mainly from these examples and from later dictionaries built on them.