All of us have swevens for the future. In fact, most of us had swevens last night (hopefully good ones). Don’t know what a sweven is? Neither do your friends — but you can fix that by bringing this Middle English word into your everyday conversations.
Once Upon a Dream
A sweven is a dream or vision. Depending on your translation from the Old English swefn, it can mean a vision for the future (you walking down the aisle with your childhood crush) or an actual sleeping dream (you walking down the aisle with your childhood crush, but they become a zombie and infect the entire wedding party). Either way, sweven is a new-but-old way to describe any type of dream.
Scary Swevens
Another type of dream that could be a sweven is a spooky one, such as a dreamlike premonition or haunting vision. That creepy floating thing you’re sure you saw that one time in the hallway? That could have been a sweven. So could that terrifying moment you saw a terrible accident flash before your eyes but then it didn’t happen, or that time you heard someone whisper in your ear but no one was there — that could be a sweven too. (Sorry for the reminder; hopefully you don’t have bad swevens because of it.)
How To Use It Today
Unless you make a living as a dream interpreter, you may not get too many chances to mention swevens in your daily life. But there’s one surefire way to bring sweven back to the 21st-century: add it to common idioms in place of the word dream. For example:
- She’s the woman of my swevens.
- This job is a sweven come true.
- We’re living the American sweven!
- One day, I’d love to move to the city. but for now it’s just a pipe sweven.
- You’re asking us to stay late on a Saturday? Sweven on!
- Look at that guy — what a sweven boat!
- After all these years, we’re finally building our sweven house.
- Tom won the lottery and is rich beyond his wildest swevens.
- Do what you love and follow your swevens.
- Sleep well, darling. Sweet swevens.
More Somniative Synonyms for ‘Sweven’
We admit, sweven can be a bit of a mouthful (and can sound distractingly like seven). If you want to talk about dreams or visions in a different way, try out:
- apparition - a ghostlike vision
- chimera - a wish that’s difficult or impossible to reach (also a mythological beast)
- phantasm - a scary illusion or dream
- phantasmagoria - a dreamlike state that feels both real and unreal
- reverie - a fanciful daydream
- somniation - the act of dreaming
Sweven A Little Sweven of Me
Does the archaic nature of sweven appeal to you? Then you’ll love: