schwanen

Etymology
Sometimes taken as a loan from, 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 (with dative construction as in German), due to phonetic similarity of Latin  and. 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 ) and pointing to the synonymous expression. Earlier variants contain -d- (schwanden, ), probably under influence of, a once common variant of.

Verb

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