swelter

English

WOTD – 1 September 2010

Alternative forms

• sulter (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English swelteren, frequentative form of Middle English swelten (“to die; faint”), from Old English sweltan (“to die”), from Proto-West Germanic *sweltan, from Proto-Germanic *sweltaną (“to die”), from Proto-Indo-European *swel- (“to smolder; burn”), equivalent to swelt +‎ -er (frequentative suffix).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈswɛl.tə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈswɛl.tɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -ɛltə(ɹ)

Verb

swelter (third-person singular simple present swelters, present participle sweltering, simple past and past participle sweltered)

1. (intransitive) To suffer terribly from intense heat.

   Synonyms: burn up, steam, stew

2. (intransitive) To perspire greatly from heat.

   Synonyms: sweat buckets, sweat like a pig

3. (transitive) To cause to faint, to overpower, as with heat.

   Synonyms: sweb, swelt

   • 1796, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Fire, Famine, and Slaughter:

     It was so rare a piece of fun
     To see the swelter'd cattle run

Translations

To suffer terribly from intense heat

• Esperanto: sufoki
• Finnish: läkähtyä (fi)
• French: étouffer (fr)
• Japanese: 茹だる (udaru)
• Middle English: swelten
• Russian: изнемогать от зноя (iznemogatʹ ot znoja), (informal) жариться (ru) (žaritʹsja)

To perspire greatly from heat

• German: stark schwitzen (de)
• Portuguese: suar (pt) em bicas

Noun

swelter (plural swelters)

1. Intense heat.

   The summer swelter did not relent until late in September, most years.

Derived terms

• sultry
• sweltery, sweltry

Translations

intense heat

• Azerbaijani: bürkü (az)
• Bulgarian: жега (bg) f (žega), зной (bg) m (znoj)
• Catalan: xafogor (ca) f
• Finnish: helle (fi)
• French: canicule (fr) f
• German: Hitzewelle (de) f
• Latvian: svelme
• Russian: жара́ (ru) f (žará), зной (ru) m (znoj)
• Spanish: bochorno (es), flama (es)

Anagrams

• Lewters, Welters, welters, wrestle