swaip

English

Etymology

From Middle English swaipen (“to strike, scourge”), from Old Norse sveipa (“to sweep, stroke”) and/or Old English swāpan (“to sweep”); both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *swaipaną (“to sweep, swing, hurl, fling”). Doublet of swoop.

Verb

swaip (third-person singular simple present swaips, present participle swaiping, simple past and past participle swaiped)

1. (UK, dialect, obsolete) To walk proudly; to sweep along.
   • 1842, Anthony Ganilh, Ambrosio de Letinez, page 143:

     Och, for his swaiping! That was a lucky job for him, —the ill-favored, foul-mouthed blackguard, heretic and villain thief!

   • 1883, Welbore St. Clair Baddeley, Bedoueen Legends: And Other Poems, page 40:

     But Ayas swaiped aside among the crowd, Aflush with hate and burning discontent: And many murmured at him: for, said they, “Hamil at least doth surely mean us well!“

   • 2013, Percarus:

     It is in good manners to swaip / But only when just celebrating / Without malice and arrogance / To show accomplishment once

Further reading

• Joseph Wright, editor (1905), “SWAIP”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume V (R–S), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 862, column 1.
• “swaip”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• ISWAP, WASPI, Waspi