Difference between revisions of "Swath - swathe"

Revision as of 17:50, 1 March 2021

The spellings swath and swathe, in the more common of the two current homographs of swathe, are interchangeable in writing.

• • OED notes "Evidence is not available for determining the date of the appearance of the form with a long vowel typically represented by the spelling swathe [[[IPA]]: /sweɪð/], since in the early periods swathe , swathes , are phonetically ambiguous; in modern local use, swathe is characteristic of the northern counties; its use in literature has probably been furthered by association with [the second meaning of swathe (below)]." LPD distinguishes between the pronunciations:
    • swath has the vowel of 'got' and 'odd', IPA: /ɒ/ or that of 'north' and 'awe',/ɔ:/ (these are the British pronunciations given in OED 1989, which treats the pronunciations of both spellings the same).
    • swathe has the vowel of 'say' and 'day', IPA: /eɪ/.
  • The word, however spelled or pronounced, means literally 'a row [of wheat or hay, etc] left by one sweep] of a scythe [in hand-mowing]'. It has been much extended in figurative meanings: some in a visual comparison, such as the swathes of dead troops 'mown down' by machine-guns, or the strips of damaged buildings left by bombing; or more metaphorically 'an area of confusion or damage [in any field]', such as 'the blizzard left a swath of immobilized vehicles across the city'; 'the Minister's change of policy left a swathe of disenchanted colleagues in the Party'. The [Cambridge Dictionary, 2021] added "a large part of something that includes several different things", citing in evidence "These people represent a broad/wide swathe of public opinion."

• The second current homograph swathe (which is not found as 'swath') can be a verb or a noun. The noun denotes 'a strip of cloth or similar' in which something is wrapped, specifically a bandage, or, archaically, swaddling clothes - the soft blanket in which a baby is wrapped; the verb 'to swathe' means 'to wrap up [a baby] in such a blanket'. (The synonym swaddling is often used in versions of the story of the birth of Jesus.)