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• swot •

Pronunciation: swaht • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: To study hard, cram (for examinations), to bone up.

Notes: Today's word is for all speakers aside from those who use British English; this is a well-known member of British slang. It is sometimes spelled swat, and may be used to refer to a person who studies hard all the time. The person may be called a swotter, too. This word may also be used as a regular verb: swot, swots, swotting, and swotted "to study hard", which often occurs with the particle up: 'to swot up Shakespeare'.

In Play: As pointed out above, swot is usually accompanied by up: "Professor Snipplethwatch swots up all the latest books in his field, so he won't be left out of the conversations about them in the department." However, this word may be used without the particle: "Justin Case swotted his geography exam all night, but still failed it by a single point, because he figured Bratislava to be the capital of Latvia."

Word History: Today's Good Word is a dialectal variation of sweat. The earliest reported use of the term was by the Scottish professor of mathematics, William Wallace (1768-1843), at the Royal Military College, in Sandhurst. He supposedly said on one occasion, "It makes one swot" (= sweat). The pronunciation of Old English swat "perspiration" apparently never changed in Scottish or the northern dialects of English. PIE sweid- "sweat, to sweat" continued in many Indo-European languages, becoming Danish sved "sweat", Swedish svett, Dutch zweet, German Schweiß among the Germanic languages. Elsewhere it became Sanskrit svedah, Avestan xvaeda-, Greek hidros, Latin sudor, Latvian sviedri, and Welsh chwys—all meaning "sweat". (George Kovac must swot everything he reads to have come up with today's Good Word.)

THE SWOT TEAM

Today's Good Word is "candidate", a timely choice.

Here is a colorful British description of a prominent US presidential candidate, posted on line this morning, which incorporates this Good Word ("swot") featured a year ago. I did not realize the word family included an adjectival form.

<<In an election season in which voters disdain experience and have not punished Donald Trump for making vague or impossible promises unbuttressed by policy details, the Democrats are trying to make Mrs Clinton’s swottish temperament and years in public service into evidence of a big heart.>> The Economist (London), on-line, July 27, 2016 “Bill Clinton hails Hillary the change-maker”

Discussing swotting or hitting the books or burning midnight oil is a pleasant romp through slang expressions. Unfortunately, where the rubber meets the road, some of it is revealed to be idle chatter.

Much more common in my experience is a tangential expression "don't sweat it." Of course it means don't worry about it or work yourself UP into a lather over it. Which segues in my head into Paul' s advice to Tim in King Jimmy's days, "Study to show thyself approved unto God..." Many the the true lesson came from that erroneous translation (at least for the 20th century) challenging us to studiously absorb the Scripture for our edification. Newer translations remind us that the KJV "study" was more like the Appalachian farmers who, when asked a question, might reply, "l'll have to study on it a bit." He meant, of course, that he wanted to think a out it awhile, not swot it up.

Take into consideration that wonks are they who swot most.