http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/swain

it’s a pretty sweet link–several different definitions with multiple examples.

then we get to things like boatswain, ….aaaaaaaaaand cockswain!

huh huh. I said “cock”

…or maybe you meant

Site

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SWAIN?

From this word meaning boy, young male or servant, are derived:

* the generic noun swain, meaning a rustic lover or boyfriend, cf. the numerous examples in Shakespeare’s work, including his lyric, “[w]ho is Sylvia, what is she that all our Swains commend her” (from The Two Gentlemen of Verona)

* the specific nautical words boatswain (literally “young man in charge of a boat”) and coxswain.