schwanen

Meaning

to anticipate (something bad), to suspect, to dread

Concepts

dread

fear

😨

Synonyms

ahnen

annehmen

ausgehen

befürchten

😨

erahnen

erwarten

fürchten

😨

glauben

meinen

mutmaßen

orakeln

schätzen

spekulieren

vermuten

vorausahnen

voraussehen

vorhersehen

vorstellen

wittern

zagen

kommen sehen

Vorahnung haben

im Urin haben

Translations

خاف

😨

témer

😨

craindre

😨

redouter

aver timore

paventare

timere

timeo

😨

témer

crentar

crénher

recear

😨

temer

😨

ter medo de

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈʃvaːnən/

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle Low German: -

In summary

Sometimes taken as a loan from Middle Low German, but first attestations are nearly contemporaneous (1514 for Low German, 1543 for High German, according to Grimm). Semantic derivation disputed. The Duden dictionary suspects a learned jocular translation from Latin olet mihi (“I smell [something]”) (with dative construction as in German), due to phonetic similarity of Latin olēre (“to smell”) and olor (“swan”). Grimm however, because of the early and near-contemporaneous attestations in different regions, sees it as an inherited word of the common people, connecting it to the traditional Germanic association of swans with prophecy and fate (cf. the Norns) and pointing to the synonymous expression Schwansfedern haben/tragen (literally “to have/wear swan's feathers”). Earlier variants contain -d- (schwanden, Low German swanden), probably under influence of ahnden, a once common variant of ahnen (“to anticipate, to suspect”).