Etymology: Mainly < sweep v. In senses 26, 28, apparently a local variant of swape n.

Etymology: Middle English swepe (taking the place of the original swope v.¹, Old English swápan , swéop , swápen ), first recorded from northern texts; of uncertain origin. Two suggestions of source have been made, both of which involve phonological difficulties. (1) The mutated stem swǽp- (compare geswǽpa beside -geswáp sweepings, ymbswǽpe ‘ambages’). This would normally have produced a modern English *sweap , but in its transference from the northern to the southern area, swepe may have been assimilated to words like slepe (Old English Anglian slépan ) to sleep v., or crepe (Old English créopan ) to creep v., the process being perhaps assisted by the past tense swep-e (Old English swéop) of the original strong verb. (2) Old Norse svipa to move swiftly and suddenly. This etymology involves the assumption that Old Norse ĭ became Middle English ē, which is not otherwise clearly authenticated, and that the intransitive sense (22) is the original.The shortening of the stem-vowel in past tense and past participle is shown in spellings c1400. The order of sense-development presents difficulties, it being uncertain whether the transitive or intransitive meanings are the primary ones. The present arrangement of the word is adopted as convenient from the modern point of view, since the whole word is now coloured by the meaning ‘cleanse or remove with a broom’.