Joseph swan


[swon] /swɒn/

noun
1.
Sir Joseph Wilson, 1828–1914, British chemist, electrical engineer, and inventor.
/swɒn/
noun
1.
any large aquatic bird of the genera Cygnus and Coscoroba, having a long neck and usually a white plumage: family Anatidae, order Anseriformes
2.
(rare, literary)

verb swans, swanning, swanned
3.
(intransitive; usually foll by around or about) (informal) to wander idly
/swɒn/
noun
1.
a river in SW Western Australia, rising as the Avon northeast of Narrogin and flowing northwest and west to the Indian Ocean below Perth. Length: about 240 km (150 miles)
/swɒn/
noun
1.
Sir Joseph Wilson. 1828–1914, English physicist and chemist, who developed the incandescent electric light (1880) independently of Edison
n.

Old English swan, from Proto-Germanic *swanaz (cf. Old Saxon swan, Old Norse svanr, Middle Dutch swane, Dutch zwaan, Old High German swan, German Schwan), probably literally “the singing bird,” from PIE root *swon-/*swen- “to sing, make sound” (see sound (n.1)); thus related to Old English geswin “melody, song” and swinsian “to make melody.”

In classical mythology, sacred to Apollo and to Venus. The singing of swans before death was alluded to by Chaucer (late 14c.), but swan-song (1831) is a translation of German Schwanengesang. Swan dive is recorded from 1898. A black swan was proverbial for “something extremely rare or non-existent” (late 14c.), after Juvenal [“Sat.” vi. 164], but later they turned up in Australia.

“Do you say no worthy wife is to be found among all these crowds?” Well, let her be handsome, charming, rich and fertile; let her have ancient ancestors ranged about her halls; let her be more chaste than all the dishevelled Sabine maidens who stopped the war–a prodigy as rare upon the earth as a black swan! yet who could endure a wife that possessed all perfections? I would rather have a Venusian wench for my wife than you, O Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, if, with all your virtues, you bring me a haughty brow, and reckon up Triumphs as part of your marriage portion. [Juvenal]

mentioned in the list of unclean birds (Lev. 11:18; Deut. 14:16), is sometimes met with in the Jordan and the Sea of Galilee.

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