swan2 (swon)

i. [A euphemistic variation of swearl; cf. swow, a similar evasion.] To swear: used in the phrase I swan, an expre ion of emphasis. Also swon. [Rural, New Eng.] Pines, ef you're blue, are the best friends I know, They mope an' sigh an' sheer your feel in's so: - They hesh the ground beneath so, tu, I swan, You half forgit you've gut a body on. Lowell, Biglow Papers, 2d ser., vi. I swan to man, a more emphatic form of I swan : mitigated form of I swear to God. But they du preach, I swan to man, it's puf'kly in des crib'le! Lowell, Biglow Papers, 2d ser., i. swan-animalcule (swon'an-i-mal kūl), n. An infusorian of the family Trachelocercidæ, or of the family Tracheliidæ, having a sort of neck, as Trachelocerca olor of the former group, and A mph i lept us cygnus of the latter. See the family names.