My Father’s Day post about Pap swarping the car over into the briars brought more than a few comments and emails about the word swarp.
I could have sworn I used the word in one of my Appalachian Vocabulary Tests but can’t find it. I did use the word in this post about Woody Frankum Ceilings.
I checked out my Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English to see what it had to say about the word swarp.
swarp
A verb to beat, strike; to move about unsteadily. Cf swap B, warp 2.
1982 Maples Memories 29 We would take an old cane pole, swarp [a bat] down, hold him by the wings, and see his little snapping teeth. 1989 Oliver Hazel Creek 31 He cut a large pole and when they would get too close to him he would lash out at them (“swarp” the ground) with the pole to drive them away. 1993 Ison and Ison Whole Nuther Lg 66 = move about unsteadily, from one side to another.
B noun A blow, hit.
1982 Maples Memories 32 Dad said that he and a friend were riding one day, and the friend, acting smart, reached over and gave Dad’s mule a swarp across the back.
I’ve heard swarp used all my life and use it myself in two distinct meanings.
- As the dictionary pointed out, a blow or a hit. You can swarp someone with a belt or other item and you can also be swarped by a cow tail, a limb, or other item.
- The other usage is like what I was trying to describe about Pap. He was driving the car and he swarped (swerved) out of the road and then pulled the car right back into the road. You might say something like: “He was out there mowing the grass and accidentally made one good swarp through his mama’s flowers.”
The second usage I shared may have come from the first usage from the dictionary: to move about unsteadily. Or it could have come from a corruption of the word “swarth: a row of mown hay or grass, the space covered by a sweep of the scythe” (Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English).
After I started thinking about the word I did a little googling around. I found an interesting and totally ridiculous piece about the word swarp and it’s usage in the book “Appalachia Inside Out Volume 2 Culture and Custom.” The book is basically a collection of different writings about or related to Appalachia. I happen to have the book on my bookshelf, but you can read the piece in its entirety here.
The outright ugliness in the writing makes me want to try to weave swarp into every last conversation I have!
Appalachia Inside Out Volume 2 Culture and Custom – An Appalachian Relic: Notes on “Swarp”
Not to be outdone, Professor Pissel Bush, in his work Why We Don’t Use Words We Never Use, a popular revision of the earlier Wamblies, Git-Fidgets, and Poltroons, by Asa Middlehigh, the famous rival of Noah Webster, states:
Though not a popular word, swarp nevertheless has enjoyed occasional currency in the isolated coves of Eastern Kentucky, where wild groups of snake-handlers, ginseng-hunters, and gum-cutters, as well as other unsavory types such as versifiers, prevaricators, and the inventors of riddles, use it as a euphemism for being “shitte [sic] drunk.”
And in a footnote, Bush adds, somewhat moralistically:
The word, with its sweet sibilant beginning, promising ease and beauty and grace, yet ends with one of the harshest sounds available in English: so too do the practitioners of swarping descend from the deceptive silken heights of their drunkenness to the foul charnel-house cellar of despair and crapulous degradation. “Swarping” is, indeed, a devil’s word, and as such belongs in no polite vocabulary.
Geesh! He doesn’t even like the letters in the word! And who wouldn’t want to be an inventor of riddles or a versifier or spend their days in the woods hunting ginseng!
The piece goes on with much of the same insanity. But ends with a fictional story that I like:
Young Josiah Leathers, the first Kentuckian to graduate from Heidelberg University in Germany with a Ph.D., was apparently a troublesome chap in his youth. Sneaking from the dormitory one frosty night, he made his way down the right fork of Hardscrabble to the Drought County Courthouse. No one was about, and the boy eager to express his disdain towards those who supported the dismantling of his vocabulary, took from his slingpoke a cold chisel and hammer. Working swiftly, he carved the word “swarp” into the soft sandstone of the Court House steps.
Confronted the next morning by the director of the Settlement School, a sour-spittled woman with a long habit of chastity Leathers defiantly cried, “I’ll not unswarp myself for no quare woman, nor for the Lord God Hisself of these hills.”
His recalcitrance won for Leathers the dubious distinction of being thrown into a sticker bush just outside the dining hall by a group of reactionary scholars led by a noxious youth named Dewars.
The Settlement School’s campaign against “swarp” was, despite Leather’s considerable efforts, mostly successful. In most parts of eastern Kentucky today, the word is no longer heard, retired at last as a quaint archaism in the works of local yarn-spinners.
Well I certainly don’t consider myself a lower class of people, nor does any of that drivel about drunkenness and cellar of despair fit my persona. I guess I could be consider a yarn-spinner with a mighty big stretch, but that’s not really me either.
I believe like Young Josiah, I’ll disregard their silly line of thinking and take a vow to never unswarp myself.
*Source: Appalachia Inside Out Volume 2 Culture and Custom – An Appalachian Relic: Notes on “Swarp”
—June 26, 2015
Seven years later swarp is still part of my regular vocabulary. I’m pretty sure it will be till I take my last breath 🙂
Last night’s video: Backpacking for Breakfast in Appalachia.
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I don’t recall in my family hearing the word swarp, but I think it sounds better than swipe, which I do remember hearing. Thank you Tipper!
I’m from eastern Kentucky and we still use swarp here. I was born and raised in the “crater” (Middlesboro). When I was growing up I got swarped with a switch if I didn’t mind. I didn’t get too many whoopings because I did what I was told. 🙂
Hi Tipper, I have heard “swarp” used my whole life, not just in Appalachia, but in the suburban area of Washington DC. Makes me wonder about some of the overly educated people in the world ? The Bible says that we will have “heady and high minded people in the last days, lovers of themselves.” I wonder what the word critics would say about those words ? I try not to pay much attention to fools. God bless you, keep posting the truth, thanx.
Kinda like “nussin’ a baby” meant holding the baby in one’s arms..and maybe rocking.
My son use that word swarp the other day when he was mowing my yard. He said ” mama I made about a 10 ft wide swarp through that ivy out there. Now I can get through the other side of the yard without going down in the road.” That is definitely a word that is used often around here
I have never heard of the word, but I did understand exactly what it meant. Always enjoy learning something new from Appalachia! Have a blessed day everyone!
I have used the word “swarp” all my life. My favorite way of explaining it is, standing on the back of a pickup, facing forward, failing to notice a limb hanging out over the road and finding yourself suddenly on the ground. You have been swarped! The blow not only impacts you full on but spins you, and if you resist, drags its full length along your exposed skin. Failing to resist lands you on your butt watching a receding vehicle and hoping they will miss you and come back.
I reckon I’ve heard swarp all my life and in different ways than swarping a car. For instance. he took a big swarp with his fist but missed or he swarped his horse with the reins or bridle.
Ron I was surprised you hadn’t heard the word.
I am to AW. If I ever did, it must have been only a few times.
Never heard of swarp, but we used to use swath when sewing. “I cut a big swath of cloth for my quilt backing.” I like the word swarp though. I will use it on my husband as he likes to drive on both sides of the road. 🙂
We didn’t have this word in my family but I like it. It looks as though it would have a Scottish pronunciation as in rhyming with “harp”.
Oh boy, do I love the ‘crapulous degradation’ phrase! I also thought swarp made perfect sense instead of swipe – just feels more active. But like the word lousy makes my skin itch, crapulous also describes something full of crap (not meaning poop but meaning stuff). I know a few people that I believe are crapulous to the fullest extent of the word. When you described feeling badly as palpeetus of the punk, it reminds me of the phrase dipootus of the blow hole which describes intestinal flu perfectly but also with a bit of comic relief!
My mama use that word palpeetus of the punk. …..if she was feeling porly
(POORLY)
Mary, I’ve never heard of the phrase dipootus of the blow hole but I will definitely be adding that to my vocabulary. I loved it so much I literally laughed out loud! 🙂 We have a lot of issues with IBS in my family so that would be a comical way to describe a flare up for sure.
Can’t remember hearing the word, swarp, in Northeast TN. We did use swath referring to the width of one pass when mowing. The swath my Dad cut with one swipe of his scythe was the widest I had ever seen; then or since.
DICTIONARY: swath: [noun] a row of cut grain or grass left by a scythe or mowing machine. the sweep of a scythe or a machine in mowing or the path cut in one course.
We also used swath when referring to the accomplishments of someone as in, “He/she sure cut a wide swath while in office”.
Another word we used on the farm was “round”. The definition of one round was when we hoed one direction and at the end of that row we switched directions. When we had hoed back to the starting/beginning end, that was one round.
When five (5) people are hoeing, ten (10) rows are completed with just one round.
The word is still alive and well in eastern KY and I’m doing my part to keep it alive here in central KY. I didn’t know swarp wasn’t a word used by everyone until I read this post. I’m glad to know Leathers would not consider me quare.
I’ve not heard “swarped” but the term “acting smart” brings back the many times that my mother would say this when she thought we were behaving badly. I hadn’t heard that expression in years. Thanks for bringing me a smile this morning.
What comes to mind with “swarp” is the sound of a switch on denim. But I don’t know why. I have no idea if I ever heard that word used. I do recall “stripe your legs” said by those who used switches. At our house it was Dad and a leather belt. For some reason, Mom never whipped us. Had she tried she would have been hurt worse than we were I think.
I am also reminded of “sideswipe” which was getting the side of a vehicle into something. I’ve heard and used that all my life and never thought about whether it is Appalachian or not.
You just keep using “swarp” and I’ll keep reading your posts !!!! Love reading about Appalachian vocabulary ❤
Swarp is a new one on me! Thanks for the post.
I hereby declare myself, also, to be “unswarpable”!!!
I’ve only heard swarp used in reference to hay cutting. It’s a good word, I’ll use it more often.
Richard
A great word, immediately understood although I’ve never heard it before
Swarp is a perfectly good word, as far as I am concerned. I’ve used it all my life. I don’t quite understand why these outside people want to dissect and evaluate us or our language. If times get hard let’s see who survives! It will be those who live near the earth not the ones who live near the asphalt!
Looks like Miss Cindy got a little stirred up this morning! I’m with you there, Miss Cindy!
I must admit that I’ve never before heard the word swarp. I am, however, very familiar with the actions you list in its definitions. It is always good to learn something new, and that’s one of the reasons that I so enjoy this blog. Thank you, Tipper, for expanding my vocabulary. Now I’m just waiting for a proper occasion to throw swarp into a conversation.
So “swarp” could be considered a mix between “swerve” and “swipe,” it sounds like. I wonder where the “a” came from? Perhaps just from the customary, local pronounciation? I love that word. Thanks, Tipper! Hugs
Swarp is a new one on me, but I will try to use it and see the raised eyebrows…Looking forward to your Friday reading…God Bless
When I read the word “swaro” in your post back then, I thought it was simply a different way to say “swipe”. I imagined your Dad swiping by the briars with the car, or using the car to swipe by the briars to teach Steve to keep his arm in the car. I think “swarp” is an interesting and fun word. I like it! Thank you for sharing these words, I enjoy them!
Donna. : )