Forms: 1 swæþ, swaþu, 3 swaðe, (4 swethe ?, 6 swade, suath, 7 swaithe, sweath, 7–9 swaith), 4– swath, swathe. [OE. swæþ str. n., swaþu str. fem. trace, track, corresp. to MLG. swat, swâde furrow, swath, measure of land (LG. swad, swatt), MDu. swat (-d-), *swâde (Du. zwad, zwade) swath, MG. swade wk. m. swath, piece of flesh torn off longways (G. schwad str. m. and n., schwade wk. m. and f. swath, space covered by the scythe in a swing); Fris., (M)LG., early mod.Du. swade have also the meaning ‘scythe.’ The ulterior relations and original meaning of the underlying Teut. root swaþ- are uncertain.
Evidence is not available for determining the date of the appearance of the form with a long vowel typically represented by the spelling swathe, 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 prob. been furthered by association with SWATHE sb.2]
† 1. Track, trace. lit. and fig. Obs.
Chiefly or ? only OE.; quot. c. 1250 is dubious.
Beowulf, 2098 (Gr.). Hwæþre him sio swiðre swaðe weardade hand on Hiorte.
c. 888. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxix. § 1. He … ne forlæet nan swæð ær he ʓefehð þæt þæt he æfterspyreð.
a. 900. O. E. Martyrol., 5 May, 74. On Oliuetes dune syndon nu ʓyt þa swæðe dryhtnes fotlasta … ne mihte seo his swaðu … beon þæm oðrum florum ʓeonlicod.
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., IV. iii. (1899), 350. Þa swaðe awuniað reʓollices lifes [orig. regularis vitæ vestigia permanent].
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 3786. Gret fier … for-brende hem … Oc aaron al hol and fer, Cam him no fieres swaðe ner.
2. The space covered by a sweep of the mower’s scythe; the width of grass or corn so cut.
c. 1475. Cath. Angl., 373/2 (Addit. MS.). Swathe, orbita falcatoris est.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 23. Take hede that thy mower … mowe his swathe cleane thorowe to that that was laste mowen before.
1664. Spelman, Gloss., s.v. Dolæ, Illud terræ spacium quod uno falcis ictu messor radit. Angl. swath.
c. 1830. Glouc. Farm Rep., 27, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. The mowing should be so performed, that neither the strokes of the scythe nor the junction of the swaths can be discerned.
1849. Thoreau, Week Concord Riv., Sat., 41. The great mower Time, who cuts so broad a swathe.
1879. J. D. Long, Æneid, IX. 415. While I cut right and left, And mow thee in advance a good wide swath.
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. 1325. in Kennett, Par. Ant. (1818), I. 573. Duæ Swathes dicti prati jacent ut sequitur. Ibid. Dimidia roda et dimidia Swathe apud Shortedolemede.
1526. Lincoln Wills (Linc. Rec. Soc.), V. 166. I bequeth vj swades off medow grounde lyeng att byllesby croffte end for to kepe an obbyt for my soule.
1625. Deed, in Sheffield Gloss. (1888), s.v., All those foure swathes of land lying and being in Crigleston.
1664. N. Riding Rec. Soc. (1886), IV. 162. All those sixteene swaithes of meadowe-ground lyeing etc. within the lordshippe of Cropton.
1787. Survey, in N. W. Linc. Gloss. (1877), s.v., All the grass lands in the Ings are laid out in Gads or swaths.
1839. Stonehouse, Axholme, 158. Two swathes [of land] in the Ings Meadow.
† 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.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. (1586), 41 b. In other places they vse a greater Sythe with a long Suath.
d. A stroke of the scythe in reaping. rare.
a. 1643. W. Cartwright, Poems, On Birth Dk. of York, 38. A strangled snake, Kill’d before known, perhaps ’mongst Heathen hath Been thought the deed and valour of the Swath.
1874. Hardy, Far fr. Madding Crowd, II. iii. 30. The hiss of tressy oat-ears rubbing together as their perpendicular stalks of amber-yellow fell heavily to each swath.
3. 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).
c. 1325. Gloss. W. de Bibbesw., in Wright, Voc., 154. Une andeyne de prée, a swathe [v.r. a swethe of mede].
c. 1340. Nominale (Skeat), 112. [Man] mawith of mede a swath.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 2508. A mede … Mawene and vne-made,… In swathes sweppene downe, fulle of swete floures.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 122. Grasse latelie in swathes is hay for an ox.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., V. v. 25. The straying Greekes ripe for his edge, Fall downe before him, like the mowers swath.
1614. Sylvester, Bethulia’s Rescue, V. 499. Long Swathes of their degraded Grasse, Well show the way their sweeping Scithes did pass.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farm, IV. vi. 499. If there be plentie of grasse, and that you see it lye thicke in the swathes.
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., xxii. 678. Swaths of new-shorn grass.
1766. Goldsm., Vicar W., vi. we turned the swath to the wind.
1766. Compl. Farmer, Grips, the swaiths, or small heaps of corn, lying in the field, as it is cut down with the scythe.
1813. T. Davis, Agric. Wilts, Gloss. s.v., Hay [is] in swath when just mowed.
1831. Sutherland Farm Rep., 74, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. That it may come early to the swaith, it is never permitted to eat it down in autumn.
1834. Brit. Husb., I. 73. As clover … is rarely tedded, it should be sufficient to leave every tenth swathe for the tithe.
1840. Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), I. 70. Though the swathe from some grounds is not heavy, the quality will everywhere be very superior.
1857. G. Musgrave, Pilgr. Dauphiné, I. xi. 243. The grass had been cut, and left in swaths.
1883. Symonds, Ital. Byways, i. 1. Men … were mowing the frozen grass … and as the swathes fell, they gave a crisp … sound.
b. transf. Applied to growing grass or corn ready for mowing or reaping.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. (1586), 45 b. To the ende the after swath may be mowed in Autume.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., xiv. 100. Whose burden’d pasture bears The most abundant swathe.
1819. Keats, To Autumn, 18. While thy hook Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. 366. In June there was a heavy swath, which was mown for seed.
1868. Morris, Earthly Par. (1870), I. II. 592. Within the flowery swathe he heard The sweeping of the scythe.
c. To cut a swath (U.S. slang): to make a pompous display, swagger, ‘cut a dash.’
1848. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., s.v. Cut.
1855. Knickerb. Mag., Dec., 617. [He] might better have cut just as big a swath somewhere else.
4. transf. and fig. a. A broad track, belt, strip, or longitudinal extent of something.
1605[?]. Drayton, Poems Lyr. & Past., Ode vii. B 8 b. Yet many riuers cleere Here glide in siluer swathes, And what of all most deare Buckstons delicious bathes.
1681. Grew, Musæum, IV. ii. 367. The Notch fortify’d with a Swath of split Quill.
1715. trans. Gregory’s Astron. (1726), I. 256. The … Ecliptic, or rather Zodiac, (for like a Belt or Swath, it is 20 deg. broad).
1818. Hogg, Brownie of Bodsbeck, I. iii. 41. I began to look o’er my shouther, but there was naething there but the swathes o’ mist.
1849. Cupples, Green Hand, xiii. Where you saw the water winding about the horizon in long swathes, as it were.
1859. Maury, Phys. Geog., vi. § 339. 105. A breadth or swath of winds in the north-east trades.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Swathe, the entire length of a sea-wave.
1909. R. F. Anderson, Logie 100 Years Ago, 9. An auld wifie laying out a swath of unbleached cotton.
b. Something compared to grass or corn falling before the scythe or sickle; esp. used of troops ‘mown down’ in battle.
1852. M. Arnold, Human Life, 19. As the foaming swath Of torn-up water, on the main, Falls heavily away with long-drawn roar.
1856. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., IV. V. vi. § 9. 89. The sound of every drooping swathe of rain.
1873. Longf., Wayside Inn, III. Scanderbeg, 19. The rearguard as it fled, Mown down in the bloody swath Of the battle’s aftermath.
1895. A. I. Shand, Life Gen. Sir E. B. Hamley, I. iv. 92. We see the dead lying in swathes as they had fallen.
5. attrib. and Comb., as swath-width; 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.
1691. Ray, N. C. Words, A *Swathe bank, a Swarth of new mowen Grass or Corn.
1817. Willan, in Archaeologia, XVII. 160 (W. Riding Words), Swath-Bauks, the edges of grass between the semicircular cuttings of the scythe.
a. 1800. Pegge, Suppl. Grose, *Swath-bawk’d, grass that has escaped the scythe. Lanc.
1652. Inv., in N. W. Linc. Gloss. (1877), s.v., Two yron *swath rakes.
1658. R. Hubberthorn, Rec. Sufferings for Tythes (MS.). Sweath-rake.
1764. Museum Rust., II. 31. The swathe-rake; a rake about two yards long, with iron teeth, and a beam in the middle, to which a man fixes himself with a belt.
1766. Compl. Farmer, Swath-rake,… much used in Essex for gathering barley after mowing.
1778. [W. Marshall], Minutes Agric., Observ., 24. In the middles of some of the *swath-widths.
