Swartness
/ˈswɔːrt.nəs/noun
The quality or state of being swart; dark or dusky in color.
Did you know?Swartness comes from an old Germanic color-word family that also gave English the more familiar dialect word swart, once used for dark skin, blackened surfaces, and the look of shadow.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*swer-
“To blacken or become dark; the ancestral root behind dark-color words in Germanic.”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*swartaz
“Black, swarthy, dark-colored.”
Old English
OE
sweart
“Black, dark, swarthy.”
Middle English
ME
swart
“Dark, dusky, blackened.”
Late Middle English
ME
swartnesse
“The state or quality of being dark or swarthy.”
Modern English
English
swartness
“The quality or state of being swart; darkness of color.”