Since writing my post on whether the venerable but awkward term “swath/swathe” is being replaced by “swatch,” I’ve been keeping an eye out for all these words. So far, I can report 6 sightings of “swath” in articles and blog comment sections and 1 sighting of “swathe” (in this rather amusing account of a non-incident that could have become an incident). I haven’t seen or heard “swatch” again.
This really isn’t a word I’ve ever used, which is interesting because originally it means a path mown by a scythe and we used to grow barley in our backyard and cut it with a scythe. And yet, in all those (actually 3) years of scything through barley, I never said “swath” and my husband, the main scythe operator, didn’t either. I never called, “Come into dinner when you’re done with that swath!” What a weird word. People do still seem to like using it, though, even in grain-free situations.