Meaning

noun a spontaneous loss of consciousness caused by insufficient blood to the brain

verb pass out from weakness, physical or emotional distress due to a loss of blood supply to the brain

originFrom Middle English swounen, swonen (“to faint”), and aswoune (“in a swoon”), both ultimately from Old English ġeswōgen (“insensible, senseless, dead”), past participle of swōgan (“to make a sound, overrun, suffocate”) (compare Old English āswōgan (“to cover over, overcome”)), from Proto-West Germanic *swōgan, from Proto-Germanic *swōganą (“to make a noise”), from Proto-Indo-European *sweh₂gʰ-.…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0