swarf

/swɔːf/

Etymology

From Middle English *swarf, *swerf, from Old English ġeswearf, ġesweorf (“iron filings; rust”) and/or Old Norse svarf (“metallic dust”), both from Proto-Germanic *swarbą (“that which is rubbed off; shavings”), from Proto-Germanic *swerbaną (“to mop, wipe; to rub off”); see further at swerve. The word is cognate to Old English sweorfan (“to rub, scour; to file”).

swarf means The waste chips or shavings from an abrasive activity, such as metalworking, a saw cutting wood, or the use of a grindstone or whetstone. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

Why this word is great

SWARF — [Noun] The fine, granular waste produced by an abrasive cutting or grinding process, most often metallic dust or chaff; archaically, a faint or swoon. From Middle English swarf, swerf, from Old English ġeswearf, ġesweorf ('filings, rust') and Old Norse svarf ('metallic dust'), from Proto-Germanic *swarbą ('that which is rubbed off'), from the root *swerbaną ('to wipe, rub off'), which also yields 'swerve'. Unlike 'shavings'—which are larger, deliberate curls from planing—or 'swoon'—a common term for a faint—swarf is the gritty, particulate detritus of violent friction. It is the hot, blue-tinged coil of steel spiraling from a lathe to form a perfect nest on the workshop floor; the glittering, hazardous powder that coats a jeweler's bench; the microscopic, metallic chaff that settles in the wrinkles of a machinist's hands. To study it is to consider the necessary loss that defines the final form—the humble truth that all making is first an act of careful destruction.

noun

The waste chips or shavings from an abrasive activity, such as metalworking, a saw cutting wood, or the use of a grindstone or whetstone.“Filings of iron, called Swarf, the barrel — — 0 [shillings] 2 [pence]”
A particular waste chip or shaving.“These swarfs, especially if they are of the tin bronze type, can usually be re-melted, after passing over a magnetic separator, by adding a small percentage to each charge of the alloy issued to the foundry for melting.”
A faint or swoon.“And when they had ſo continued feaſting for a ſhort time, they had been ſo ſerved before, and the food was ſo rare and excellent, that they fell into a ſwarf, and cried out, Cant[icle of Canticles] ii. 4, 5. 'He hath brought me into the banqueting-houſe, and his banner over me was love. O ſtay me with flaggons, comfort me with apples, for I am ſick of love.'”

verb

To grind down.“A machine for swarfing the joining edges of parts or sub-assemblies having compound angle surfaces is announced by the Rockford Machine Tool Co., Rockford, 111.”
To grow languid; to faint.“Meg, rinnin like a flae in blanket, / Her coats upon a lang nail hanket, / That gart her coup the creels [i.e., fall head over heels] an' ſqueel, / "Ah! Sirce, I'm gruppet by a de'il!" / An' as ſhe near the threſhold lay, / Wae's me! ſhe near hand ſwarf'd away!”