That’s about the size of it

July 17th, 2008 at 07:00am Barry Wood

Some words come with size limits. Two examples, listed one after the other in Webster’s, are “swatch” and “swath.”

The specific meaning of “swatch” (origin unknown) is “a sample piece of cloth or other material.” In general, it can be used for “a small amount or number in a cluster, bunch or patch.” You could have a large swatch of something, but it would still be fairly small — just larger than a typical swatch.

The word “swath” comes from the Old English for “a track,” and is related to a German word for the “space covered by a scythe swing.” This accounts for its first definition, “the space or width covered with one cut of a scythe or other mowing device.”

In general, a swath is “a long strip, track or belt of any particular kind.”

The path of destruction of a tornado is often called a swath. Note that the distinctive characteristic of a swath is its length, not its width.

On the other hand, the idiomatic phrase “cut a wide swath” emphasizes that other dimension. It means “to make an ostentatious display or forceful impression.”

If you add an “e,” you get “swathe,” used mostly as a verb for “to wrap or bind up,” as with bandages, or “to surround or envelop.”

“Every night she swathes him in swaths of damp cloth.” Swatches probably wouldn’t work.

Entry Filed under: word origins