swien
Appearance
See also: Swien
Middle English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Old English swigian.
Verb
[edit]swīen
- to be silent, to refrain from speaking or making sound
Usage notes
[edit]- Not to be confused with sweien (“make a sound”), with which it was homophonous by the 13th century.[1]
Alternative forms
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Edna Rees Williams, The Conflict of Homonyms in English (1944), page 100