swath

chained_bear commented on the word swath

I had always pronounced, and heard this word pronounced, as swath. This morning on the radio I heard a (British) journalist pronounce it (twice) as "swaythe." I think he was misusing the term swathe rather than pronouncing something as distinctively British, though, because he was using it in the sense of "large areas," not "enveloping bandage" or "swaddling clothes."

October 14, 2008

bilby commented on the word swath

Cambridge Dictionary has:

"swathe (AREA) noun

1 C (ALSO swath) a long strip or large area especially of land:

'Huge swathes of rain forest are being cleared for farming and mining.'

2 S LITERARY a varied section or range:

'These people represent a broad/wide swathe of public opinion.'"

I can't see any misuse in the example you cite.

October 14, 2008

chained_bear commented on the word swath

I was looking at the WeirdNet definitions for swath (here) and swathe (there). They appear to mean quite separate things.

Either that, or the gentleman in question merely pronounces the word differently.

Additional information. OED lists swath by itself, thus:

1 swath1, swathe

2 swath2, swathe

The first:

1. Track, trace. lit. and fig. Obs.

Chiefly or ? only OE.; quot. c 1250 is dubious.

2. a. The space covered by a sweep of the mower's scythe; the width of grass or corn so cut.

b. As a measure of grass land: A longitudinal division of a field, ? orig. reckoned by the breadth of one sweep of the scythe. local.

c. The extent of sweep of a scythe. Obs. rare.

Misunderstood by R. Holme Armoury III. 332/2 as ‘the long crooked Staff or Pole’ of a scythe.

d. A stroke of the scythe in reaping. rare.

3. a. A row or line of grass, corn, or other crop, as it falls or lies when mown or reaped; also collectively, a crop mown and lying on the ground; phr. in (the) swath (cf. LG. in't swatt), lying in this condition.

Sometimes, ‘the quantity falling at one sweep of the scythe’ (Robinson Whitby Gloss. 1876 s.v. Sweeathe).

b. transf. Applied to growing grass or corn ready for mowing or reaping.

c. to cut a swath (U.S. slang): to make a pompous display, swagger, ‘cut a dash’. Now freq. to cut a wide swath.

4. transf. and fig. a. A broad track, belt, strip, or longitudinal extent of something.

b. Something compared to grass or corn falling before the scythe or sickle; esp. used of troops ‘mown down’ in battle.

5. attrib. and Comb., as swath-width; swath-board, a slanting board attached to the cutter-bar of a mowing machine, designed to force the cut grass, etc., into a narrower swath; swath(e)-balk, a ridge of grass left unmown between the swaths, or between the sweeps of the scythe; hence swath(e)-balked a.; swath(e)-rake, ‘a wooden rake the breadth of the swath, used to collect the scattered hay or corn’ (E.D.D.); swath-turner, a machine used for turning over swaths of hay.

The second:

local variant of SWARTH n.1 (Cf. SWAD n.1)

And for swathe:

1 swathe, n.1

2 swathe, n.2

3 swathe, v.

The first:

see SWATH1

The second:

1. A band of linen, woollen, or other material in which something is enveloped; a wrapping; sometimes, a single fold or winding of such; also collect. sing. a. gen.

b. sing. and pl. An infant's swaddling-bands. Obs.

c. A surgical bandage.

2. transf. a. A natural formation constituting a wrapping; a covering membrane, integument; an object that enwraps something, as a cloud.

b. = LIST n.3 6b, LISTEL. Obs.

c. fig. Something that restricts or confines like a swaddling-band.

3. Comb.: swathe-fish, the ribbon-fish.

And the third:

1. trans. To envelop in a swathe or swathes; to wrap up, swaddle, bandage.

b. Said of the swathe or wrapping.

c. To wrap round something, as or like a swathe or bandage.

2. transf. and fig. To envelop or surround as with a wrapping; to enwrap, enfold; to encircle so as to confine or restrain.

¶3. To make into sheaves. Obs. rare0.

October 14, 2008

frogapplause commented on the word swath

"A massive fire in the Angeles National Forest nearly doubled in size overnight, threatening 12,000 homes Monday in a 20-mile-long swath of flame and smoke and surging toward a mountaintop broadcasting complex and historic observatory."

--Associated Press

September 1, 2009

hernesheir commented on the word swath

Swath appears in phrasal constructions with a variety of verbs, as revealed by a quick search on Google using quotations around the phrase: create (a swath), burn, ravage, cut, slice, flatten, destroy, shear, mow, shave, peel, harvest - most with the sense of removal of something in a strip. One can also do the opposite - grow a swath, plant a swath, raise a swath.

September 1, 2009

nimaaa commented on the word swath

Thanks Bilby and everyone else.

September 26, 2010

oroboros commented on the word swath

I've heard the British pronunciation ("swaythe") many times and in different venues; often enough that I'm going to put it in my 'Bi-sonic' list.

December 20, 2012