Swear

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'To swear' has two main meanings. They are related, but should not be confused.

  • The original meaning is 'to promise', particularly in a solemn way, such as by calling one's God to witness the truth of the promise. (This is also called 'taking an oath'.) Swearing implies, less strongly than it used to, a binding contract. In a court of law, witnesses have to "swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth" - it is the criminal offence of perjury if they then tell a lie. 'To swear' can also be used transitively, in the sense of 'making someone swear: an officer will swear in a recruit to the Army. Such a recruit will 'swear allegiance to the Queen'; a Christian recruit will swear by God, and a Muslim by Allah'.
  • The second meaning is a perversion, or development, of the first. It was originally using the name of God in an offensive way, as an expression of anger or disgust, and even just for emphasis. It is, now that religion and the idea of God is less respected, using other forms of taboo language as well: the meaning of 'to swear' remains, in OED's magisterially precise academic English, "To utter a form of oath lightly or irreverently, as a mere intensive, or an expression of anger, vexation, or other strong feeling; to use the Divine or other sacred name, or some phrase implying it, profanely in affirmation or imprecation; to utter a profane oath, or use profane language habitually; more widely, to use bad language" (at meaning #8)


'To swear' is an irregular verb. Its forms are given here:

Base form past tense -ed participle Remarks
swear swore sworn Also forswear
This is one of the "the 250 or so irregular verbs" listed in Quirk 1985. The list "contains most of the irregular verbs in present-day English ... but is not meant to be exhaustive, particularly with regard to derivative verbs." AWE has copied most of the entries in that list. The verb 'to swear' belongs to Quirk's Class 4 A b