Wordie: Swan: Comments

Comment by ofravens, 5 months ago

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 23:01:00 +0000

absurd and out-of-season, a single swan
floats chaste as snow
from "Winter Landscape, With Rooks," Sylvia Plath

Comment by adoarns, 7 months ago

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 01:48:30 +0000

In the hospital, a swan is a Swan-Ganz catheter, a special kind of line that snakes down the superior vena cava, into the right side of the heart, and out into the pulmonary artery. It's useful for measuring pressures in the pulmonary vasculature, a part of the blood circulation usually unreachable, and for measuring how much the heart is pumping.

Comment by chained_bear, 10 months ago

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 19:14:14 +0000

Ohhh... "I shall warrant." I guess that makes sense. Fascinating.

Comment by reesetee, 10 months ago

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 17:13:09 +0000

C_b, I think you're on the right track. My understanding is that it was slang from the 1800s that made its way across the Atlantic at some point. Here's OED on the subject:

"prob. north. Eng. dial. Is'wan, lit. ‘I shall warrant’ = I'll be bound; later taken as a mincing substitute for SWEAR v. Cf. SWANNY v."

First time I remember seeing/hearing it was w/ Mark Twain.

Comment by chained_bear, 10 months ago

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 15:29:17 +0000

I don't think I've ever heard it. Where does it come from? If it's like "I declare," then was it originally "I swear," or something like that? I mean... why swan?

Comment by jennarenn, 10 months ago

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 03:39:15 +0000

My dad says, "I swannie!" No clue how to spell that.

Comment by skipvia, 10 months ago

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 00:07:54 +0000

The equivalent of I declare, at least according to the way my mother used it. Good Southernism.

Comment by sionnach, 10 months ago

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 23:12:58 +0000

As in "Well, I swan".