Sweeming

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Shining with a faint, soft light, as used in certain Scottish dialects to describe something that glimmers
2. Giving off a dim, gentle gleam, a regional Scots term for something that shines quietly in the dark
3. Glimmering faintly or glowing softly, an older dialect word for a light that shimmers without brightness

Etymology: "Sweeming" is the present participle of "sweem," a verb meaning to swim, or more precisely to be faint, dizzy, or swooning. In Middle English the word was "swimen," which meant to swim in the ordinary sense, but its use for the sensation of the head spinning or the eyes dimming grew from the idea of being carried along in water, unsteady and without firm footing. The verb "sweem" is recorded in Scots and northern English dialect, where it survives in the sense of being in a dizzy or drowsy state. The form "sweeming" is the participle used with auxiliary verbs, as in "I was sweeming" or "the room was sweeming." It shares its root with "swim," which descends from Old English "swimman," and with the Germanic family of words for moving through water. Its unusual spelling reflects dialect pronunciation that kept a long vowel in place of the standard form.