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Origin and history of swale

swale(n.)

"low, hollow place," often boggy, 1580s, a special use of Scottish swaill "low, hollow place," or East Anglian dialectal swale "shady place" (c. 1400); both of them probably from Old Norse svalr "cool," from Proto-Germanic *swalaz.

A local word in the eastern counties of England, in Virginia and vicinity it was given broad application, later extended to the lower tracts of the prairie (19c.) and in 20c. to landscaping features in suburban developments.

also from 1580s

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Trends of swale

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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