swanship

English

Etymology 1

swan +‎ ship

Noun

swanship (plural swanships)

1. (uncommon, chiefly in fiction) A ship shaped like a swan.
   • 1979, Lorna Baxter, The eggchild, Dutton Juvenile, →ISBN:

     "That's what I feel," replied Jasper, relieved, then chuckled to see the sleek, bewhiskered head of a seal pop out of the water by the swanship.

   • 1983, Dikkon Eberhart, Paradise: A Novel, Stemmer House Pub, page 14:

     He might have been drowned, along with fat Basil, that arrogant merchant, when the swanship broke apart. Indeed, he thought, in all of his wanderings since his birth in the Carthaginian hills, he had rarely been far from death.

Etymology 2

swan +‎ -ship

Noun

swanship (uncountable)

1. (uncommon) The status of being a swan; swanhood, swanness.
   • 1910, The Pall Mall Magazine:

     "A flight towards swanship, certainly." "Full swanship," said the girl. "I won't have him for a swan yet in my aviary; he must first grow other and finer feathers."

   • 1912, The Nation, page 15:

     The biography bears the ever-accompanying character of historical writings, with this aim: the obscuring of unpleasant episodes, the promotion of all geese to swanship. The people of the West are particularly sensitive to criticism.

   • 1943, Dent Smith, Encore: A Continuing Anthology:

     He is a dingy duck who would assume swanship, a crow who would strut as a peacock, an alley cat who would pass himself off as a lion. Imagining himself gifted above all of us perfected craftsmen, he has the effrontery to range ...