English → Latin
“swell” in Latin
tumēscōto begin to swell, become distended or inflated, swell up; to become excited or violent, ready to burst forthintumēscōto become swollen; to riseturgēscōto swell up, begin to swellcrēscōto rise, grow, grow up; prosper, thrive; increase, multiply, augment; to come to be; to become visible, spring from, ariaccrēscōto grow, increaseaugeōto increase, augment, enlarge, spread, expand; to lengthen; to raise, strengthenaugēscōto (begin to) grow, develop or increaseturgeōto be swollen, swell out; to swell (with rage); to be enraged; to be inflated or bombastictumeōto be swollen, turgid, distended, puffed out or inflated, to swell; to be excited or violent, ready to burst forth; to btumefaciōto cause to swell, tumefy; to swell, puff up or inflate with pride
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
swell v.
Intransitively, tumescere: intumescere: extumescere (☞ contumescere very late); turgescere (☞ inturgescere very late): crescere: accrescere (to grow): augeri, augescere (to increase).
To be swollen, turgere: tumere (Döderlein makes turgere denote actual fulness, tumere apparent fulness, but real emptiness; but this does not always hold: tumere seems, however, to be used especially of unnatural, unhealthy cases; turgere, though not exclusively, of natural, healthy ones: the seed, corn, a grape, etc., swells, semen turget; frumenta turgent; gemmae in laeto palmite turgent; uva turget mero: the body is swollen with, poison, corpus tumet veneno). Her eyes are swelled with weeping, lumina turgent gemitu (Propertius): his face is swelled from a blow, ora turgent ab ictu (Ov.).
Figuratively. To swell with passion, turgere (Plaut.): turgescere: tumere (Cic.; of swelling with any vicious passion); (vitrea) bilis turgescit (Persius). To be swelled (with pride, etc.), inflatum, elatum esse (tumidum esse, in Sen. and Tac., but rare). My heart swells with joy, laetitia magna perfruor: laetitia or gaudio exsulto.
Transitively, tumefacere (to cause to swell): augere (to enlarge; e.g., flumen): implere (to fill): inflare: inflationem habere, facere, or parere (to inflate): to swell the sails, vela tendere or intendere; vela implere (to fill them): swollen sails, vela turgida or tumida (the former when they have caught the wind, the latter when filled with useless air; so Döderlein, but perhaps with too nice a distinction).
swell s.
(of the sea)(of the sea), aestus (maris).
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for swell?
- The usual Latin words for “swell” are tumēscō, intumēscō, turgēscō; also crēscō, accrēscō, augeō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.