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• swaddle •

Pronunciation: swah-dêl • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, transitive

Meaning: 1. To swathe, to bandage, to wrap in bandages. 2. To tightly bind a baby with blankets so that it cannot move its arms or legs. 3. To tightly restrain or restrict, to smother, suffocate.

Notes: Swaddling dates back to the Ancient Egyptians, who wrapped their infants in long strips of cloth, a process taking as long as two hours. Swaddled babies were then often hung on a wall peg. Swaddling is still practiced in the Balkans, presumably because the babe feels more like it did in the womb. Many Native Americans once swaddled their papooses.

In Play: Of course, at this time of the year, we associate today's word with Luke 2:12 "And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." (A much better translation than the more modern, "wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a feeding trough".) However, you do not have to be a Christian to appreciate our word today: "Wash the car! Mow the lawn! Paint the porch! You have to quit swaddling me with so much work and let me relax on the weekends."

Word History: Today's Good Word probably comes to us from one of those English dialects where [th] becomes [t] or [d] (Brooklyn, Ireland, or down South today). It seems to have started out as a diminutive form or form indicating a frequent action (frequentative) of Old English swathian "to swath." So, this word is very much like another Good Word, passel, another mispronunciation of a word that went off on its own and worked its way back into the language as a new word.

Question regarding current British English: is there a difference between swath and swathe? I see the latter where I expect the former most of the time, at least on the internot. For me, swath is the noun, swathe the verb. Yet I keep seeing things like "cut swathes through". Are they wrong, or is it just another example of peoples separated by a common language?

Also bath and bathe - even perhaps path and pave? I think lath and lathe may follow different rules. A lath is a flat piece of wood and probably not lathed to reach such condition. But the two words are presumably linked somehow?

You forgot loath and loathe.

I'm sure they are related, but am wondering if the 'e' version is ever normally used the way I'd use the non-e version.

I just looked, and it appears lath and lathe are actually from different roots. And neither is related to lather (the foamy stuff).