▪ I. swale, n.1 dial.
(sweɪl)
Forms: 4 swayl, 6 swaill, swaile, swaule, swawle, 6–7 swall(e, 8–9 swale, 9 swaul.
[Of obscure origin.
If the orig. meaning was a pliant ‘swaying’ piece of wood, the two types swail, swall, may represent an OE. *swæᵹ(e)l, *swaᵹol, f. swaᵹ-, cogn. with Scand. svag- in Norw. svaga (see swag v.); cf. ME. hail, haul (OE. hæᵹel, haᵹol), hail n.1]
Timber in laths, boards, or planks; planking; also, a lath, plank.
For specialized local uses see quots. 1841 and 1903.
| 1325 Rolls of Parlt. I. 434/2 Qu'ele peusse pur swayl & autres busoignes necessaries de la meson, abatre en la dit boys cent rores. 1505–6 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 103 Pro sarracione le swailles pro eisdem [domibus porcorum]. 1531–2 Durham Househ. Bk. (Surtees) 80 Pro sarracione ½ rod in swalles 10 d. Ibid. 130, 1 lytyll swall and 12 bords. 1557 Ludlow Churchw. Acc. (Camden) 80 For swaile for a saunce belle..ij d. 1574 Richmond Wills (Surtees) 249 Foure swawles and foure trists, vs. 1582 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees 1860) 47, iij swalles for a horse baye. 1597 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 740 For sawinge Sarkyn boordes and Swalles for the churche and the new bridge. 1600 Knaresb. Wills (Surtees) I. 222 A swalle of timber lyinge at Beckwithe. 1640 Gateshead Church Bks. in Northumbld. Gloss. s.v. Swale, For 12 swalls for formes for the church. 1648 in Archaeologia æliana (1892) XV. 252 For 20 Swalls to be scaffolds. 1799 Naval Chron. I. 176 Stepping down the side of the Yarmouth hulk at Plymouth, he fell against the swale of the vessel. 1841 Hartshorne Salopia Ant. Gloss. 582 Swale, a piece of wood going from an upright shaft in an oatmeal mill to one of the wheels. 1903 Eng. Dial. Dict., Swauls, the outside bars in the frame of the bottom of a cart. w. Yks. |
▪ II. swale, n.2 dial., chiefly E. Angl.
(sweɪl)
Also 7 swill, 9 swail.
[prob. of Scandinavian origin, and related to ON. svalar f. pl. (MSw. svali, Sw. svale, Norw. sval) balcony or gallery along the side of a house, ON. svalr cool (see swale a.), ON. (MSw., Sw., Norw.) svala to cool.]
Shade; a shady place. Also, the cool, the cold.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 481/2 Swale (P. or shadowe), umbra, umbraculum, estiva. 1567 Golding Ovid's Met. v. (1593) 116 Downe she sate among the trees which gaue a plesant swale. 1571 ― Calvin on Ps. xxiii. 4 David alludeth to y⊇ dark swales or the dens of wyld beastes. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric., Dict. Rust., Swill, used in the Northern parts for shade, or shadow. c 1700 Kennett MS. Lansd. 1033, Swale, cold or dank air; as, he lies in the swale, i.e. in the open cold air. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 139 Granny there was on the bench, Coolly sitting in the swail. 1857 Borrow Romany Rye xxv, Turn your horse out to grass..in the swale of the morn and the evening. |
▪ III. swale, n.3 local.
(sweɪl)
Also 6 Sc. swaill, swayll, 9 swail, Sc. swyle.
[Origin unknown. Prob. conveyed to America from the eastern counties, where it is still in use.]
A hollow, low place; esp. U.S., a moist or marshy depression in a tract of land, esp. in the midst of rolling prairie. Also (U.S.) a hollow between adjacent sand-ridges.
| 1584 (Dec. 23) Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. (1888) 239/2 Keipand the stripe quhill it enter in Beildeis swaill, and keipand and ascendand upwith the said swaill quhill it cum to the littill stane calsay. 1615 Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1848) II. 324 Hauldand vp the said burne to the roche swaill of Kynmvndie. Ibid., Quhair thair is ane great mother swayll on the south syde of the said Blackburne. Ibid. 326 Thairfra doun the said northsyd of the great swayll. 1667 Dedham Rec. IV. 135 (Thornton) He may cutt in a place called the Swale, adjoyning to the Ceader Swampe. 1805 T. Bigelow Jrnl. Tour Niagra Falls (1876) 37 (Thornton) A swale or valley affords..copious springs of water. 1809 Kendall Trav. III. lxxvii. 193 The swales, or rich hollows, lying behind the uplands, by which latter they are separated from the meadows. 1827 J. F. Cooper Prairie v, Fire low, boys—level into the swales, for the red skins are settling to the very earth! 1830 Galt Lawrie T. iii. ii. (1849) 86 Stumps and cradle heaps, mud-holes and miry swails, succeeded one another. 1866 Gregor Banffsh. Gloss., Swyle, a bog. 1874 Trippe in Coues Birds N.W. 223 An open park-like tract of rolling, grassy prairie, interspersed with groves of pines, low hills, and wet, marshy swales. 1894 Dialect Notes I. 334 Swale, low land between sand ridges on the coast beaches [of New Jersey]. 1945, 1976 [see point bar (b) s.v. point n.1 D. 14]. |
| attrib. 1830 Galt Lawrie T. viii. v. (1849) 371 These swale-runnels are often deceptive. 1905 Blackw. Mag. Dec. 771/1 That course led him through the swale bottoms. 1911 Canadian Newspaper, Their crop is swale hay; in other words swamp grass. |
▪ IV. swale, n.4 south. dial. local.
(sweɪl)
[Origin uncertain: cf. sweal, swale n., and swill n.1 10 in Eng. Dial. Dict.]
A small broom or brush without a stick for a handle.
| 1949 K. S. Woods Rural Crafts of England iii. vii. 123 Some besoms are made without sticks. These are known as swales, an interesting word meaning ‘a small bright fire enough to boil a kettle’. Swales are used to brush the flakes from steel-plate. 1968 J. Arnold Shell Bk. Country Crafts 100 Like the besom, it has a head of birch..but is without a handle and is called a swale. |
▪ V. swale, a. north. dial.
[a. ON. svalr (MSw., Sw., Norw. sval) cool: cf. swale n.2]
Cool, chill.
| 1674 Ray N.C. Words 47 Swale, windy, cold, bleak. |
▪ VI. swale, v.1
see sweal v.
▪ VII. swale, v.2
(sweɪl)
[app. of dial. origin (see swail in Eng. Dial. Dict.); prob. frequent. f. sway v. + -le, but parallels are wanting. Cf. Shropshire dial. swayl-pole = sway-pole.]
intr. To move or sway up and down or from side to side. Hence ˈswaling vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also ˈswalingly adv., with a swaying motion.
| 1820 Blackw. Mag. VII. 676 Here's a jerked feather that swales in a bonnet. 1822 Ibid. XII. 781 With his eternal sidling and sliding about,..and swaling with his coat-tails. Ibid. 782 Treading the street with his corn-troubled toes,..swalingly goes the kind Cockney King. 1824 Ibid. XV. 86 He drops a wing..with a swaling and graceful amorousness. 1827 Praed Red Fisherm. 221 As the swaling wherry settles down. 1863 Sala Captain Dangerous I. iv. 123 The great plumed hat..flapped and swaled over my eyes. 1895 A. Dobson Poems, Sundial xi, A soldier gallant.., Swinging a beaver with a swaling plume. |
▪ VIII. swale
obs. pa. tense of swell v.