swoonyadj.
/ˈswuːni/ 1. Inclined to swoon.
ΚΠ
a1919 In recent Dicts.
1978 M. Dickens Open Bk. (1980) ii. 26 For one of her heroes, in the style she originated as a swoony girl in Dulwich, Fanny wrote: [etc.].
2. Inducing a swoon; hence, distractingly attractive, delightful. colloquial.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > attractiveness > [adjective]
gracious1340
glorious skinnyc1400
drawing1435
gracefulc1449
attrayant1477
well-favoured1539
alluring1567
graceda1586
attracting1589
attractive1592
winning1596
appealing1598
taking1603
allicient1613
enchantinga1616
motive1615
temptinga1616
allurant1631
catchinga1640
gaining1642
canny1643
charmful1656
charming1664
mignon1671
disarminga1718
prepossessing1737
seducing1749
seductive176.
eye-catching1770
sweet1779
catchy1784
attaching1785
engaging1816
cute1834
cunning1843
taky1854
cynosural1855
smart1860
fetching1880
seductious1883
fruity1900
barry1923
hot stuff1928
swoony1934
dishy1961
dolly1964
jiggy1996
aegyo2007
1934 in Webster's New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang.
1960 H. Wentworth & S. B. Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 534/2 Swoony,..adj., attractive. Teenage use, c1940. More often in movies and stories about teenagers than used by teenagers.
1973 T. Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow i. 57 Those eyes she could never quite see into were so swoony.
1974 ‘R. Tate’ Birds of Bloodied Feather ii. 26 Champers and strawberries and Ronald and swoony lanes on the way back.
1976 P. Flower Crisscross i. 11 Their kiss was long and deep and swoony.
Derivatives
ˈswooniness n. a quality suggestive of a swoon.
ΚΠ
1909 R. Bridges in R. W. Dixon Poems p. xxx The faintness and swooniness is in some sort akin to the remoteness and misty atmosphere of antiquity.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online March 2019).
<
adj.1909