a-swoon, advb. phr.
(əˈswuːn)
Forms: 4–5 aswoune, aswounne, aswowne, a swowen, a swoun(e, a swown(e, 5 a-swoone, 7– aswoon, a-swoon.
[Also written a swoune, expanded on swoune, and most commonly from 1325 to 1500 in swoune, in swowne, after 1500 in a swown(e, sown(e, swoon; as if f. a prep.1 + swoon n. But as this n. does not otherwise appear in early use, aswowne was perhaps by mistaken analogy for aswown (cf. adowne, adown), aswowen = iswowen, OE. ᵹeswóᵹen; in which case aswoon and aswough are of identical origin: see the latter, and swoon n.]
In a swoon or faint. to fall aswoon: to faint away.
| c 1386 Chaucer Sqr.'s T. 466 And fil to grounde anon And lith aswowne [v.r. a swounne, a swowne, on swoune], deed and lyk a stoon. c 1400 Rom. Rose 1804 A-swoone I felle, bothe deed & pale. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 217/3 Yf the moder be a swowne of the payne. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. I. 408 Mony fell in swoun. 1637 Rutherford Lett. 110 (1862) I. 276 My faith was fallen aswoon and Christ but held up a swooning man's head. 1860 S. Dobell in Macm. Mag. Aug. 326 A-swoon With fear. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. III. viii. iii. 15 Wilhelmina, faint, fasting, sleepless all night, fairly falls aswoon. |