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.
2. (intransitive) To perspire greatly from heat.
3. (transitive) To cause to faint, to overpower, as with heat.
   • 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