See Also: forcipate(medicine)
forcipate(dictionary)

swain (iou) and forcipate (iou)


swain (iou)



swain noun. LOE.
[Old Norse sveinn boy, servant, attendant = Old English swan swineherd, Middle Low German swen, Old High German swein (German dial. Schwein), from Germanic. Cf. BOATSWAIN, COXSWAIN.]
A young man attending a knight; a man of low rank. LOE-L16.
A male servant or attendant. ME-E17.
A (young) man; a boy. ME-M17.
A country labourer, esp. a shepherd; a rustic. arch. L16.
A country gallant; gen. a lover, a suitor. Chiefly poet. L16.
B. Bryson My wife had brought me here as her young swain one Sunday afternoon many years before.
Hist. A freeholder in a forest. rare. E17.
swainish adjective resembling or characteristic of (that of) a swain M17.

forcipate (iou)



forcipate adjective. M17.
[from Latin forcip- FORCEPS + -ATE2.]
Chiefly Botany & Zoology. Shaped like forceps; deeply forked.
Also forcipated adjective M17.