swat

Etymology

It is a northern English dialect and American variant of squat,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} a verb that in older use meant to crush or squash;^[6][7] Barnhart calls it probably a dialectal variant.^[8] Squat is from Middle English squatten, from Old French esquatir (“to crush”),^[6][7] from es- and quatir (“to press flat”), from Vulgar Latin *coāctiō, from Latin coāctus, past participle of cōgō (“to compress”).^[6][7] For the sense "to hit sharply", Barnhart suggests that it may have another origin, perhaps an alteration of swap, to strike, recorded probably before 1400,^[8] and Etymonline also takes it as possibly from Middle English swappen (“to strike, smite”), probably of imitative origin.^[7] Partridge calls the word echoic.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To sit down, to squat: 1615, in Richard Brathwait's Strappado, as a northern word.^[2][8][10]

Semantic evolution

The sense "to sit down" stayed in northern English dialect.^[2][10] The sense "to hit with a smart slap or a violent blow" first appears before 1800 in Samuel Pegge's supplement to Grose's provincial glossary,^[2] or in 1796 according to Etymonline, which calls it an American and northern English dialect word.^[7][8] The noun, a smart or violent blow and also a heavy fall, is recorded from the same source.^[2][7] According to Green's Dictionary of Slang, the word faded in Britain and came back from the United States, notably in the Sultan of Swat, the nickname of the big-hitting baseball player Babe Ruth in the 1920s;^[11] the Merriam-Webster Unabridged records a swat in baseball as a long hit, especially a home run.^[10] The OED notes that the verb is now used especially of crushing a fly with a blow,^[2][12] and Weekley cites the slogan swat that fly from 1911.^[13] Wright's dialect dictionary records further words spelled swat in the north: a small quantity, especially of liquid, and to squander.^[14]

Timeline

• 1615 – to sit down, squat (northern).^[2][10]
• 1796 – to strike, hit (Etymonline).^[7]
• a1800 – to hit with a smart slap; noun, a smart blow.^[2]
• early 19th century – intransitive, to hit at something.^[12]
• 1911 – swat that fly.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hit something with a sharp slap or blow, especially to kill an insect: She swatted the wasp with a rolled-up magazine.^{[5][10][2][6]}
2. To hit out at something, or to try to strike it: The dog swatted at the bee with its paw.^[10][6][12]
3. (dialect, England) To sit down; to squat.^[10][2]

Noun

1. A sharp or violent blow.^{[5][10][2][6]}
2. In baseball, a long hit, especially a home run.^[10][11]
3. (chiefly British) A swatter for killing flies.^[5]

Word family

• swatter
• fly swat

Related words

• squat
• swap
• swot

Usage notes

Swat is also a spelling of swot, to study hard.^[11][13] The capitalised SWAT is a separate word, an acronym of Special Weapons and Tactics (or Special Weapons Attack Team) recorded from 1968 in American English, for a police unit trained for especially dangerous situations.^{[8][10][2][5]} Swat is also the name of a river and district in Pakistan and of its people.^[10][2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)