Sweven- Daily Word №1
Eleven? Seven? Swell? Yes, this is a word.
Today’s word is sweven(plural: swevenes), which simply means ‘sleep’, or ‘dream’. For me it immediately reminded me of the word swell with its slow /sw/ sound followed by a fast /ɛvən/ sound. Almost like a series of waves.
What it Means
Looking into its roots, sweven comes all the way from Latin’s somnus — which means drowziness or sleep. It also has a verb form cousin in Middle Dutch, which means ‘to wander’ or ‘to float’. Ironically, at the same time it can also mean ‘to remain’.
As with many words, sweven was later replaced by another word. In this case, drem became the lucky heir, which still means ‘dream’ in Middle English.
Using ‘sweven’ In a Sentence
We can use sweven simply by replacing it with its more common counterpart — dream. For example:
The chaotic swarm of life finally settles down to calm swevenes(dreams).
Sadly, beautiful little words like sweven and drem are now considered ‘archaic’ and are slowly being forgotten. True to their meanings, these quaint expressions are vanishing from books and minds just like dreams do after we wake up.
I know I might not be much, but I hope to bring these words back to our use again. By sharing one word a day, maybe we still have a shot at saving them.
