swidden
/ˈswɪdn̩/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.37 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An area of land that has been cleared by cutting the vegetation and burning it; slash and burn.
Example Sentences
- "Kamiali Village is a community of swidden horticulturists and fishers lying 80 kilometers in a south-southeasterly direction along the coast from the City of Lae, Papua New Guinea."
- "These facts reinforced the view that the Maya drew their basic sustenance from corn, most of it grown on slash-and-burn plots known as swiddens."
- "‘Swidden’ has entered anthropological jargon, denoting not only a practice widespread in non-state societies, but also a problem."
- "The reason, Scott says, is that swiddening provides a freedom that fixed agriculture does not."
Etymology
Possibly from a dialectal form *swiden of Middle English swithen, past participle of Middle English swithen (“to burn, scorch, singe”), from Old Norse svíða (“to singe, burn”). Compare also Old Norse sviðinn (“burnt, singed”, past participle). Alternatively, from Old Norse sviðna (“to be burned”) or Old High German swedan (“to be burned”). Either way, probably ultimately from Proto-Germanic *swīþaną. First attested in 1868. If their respective theories align, then a distant cognate of German Schwyz, hence Swiss.
Origin
- Source language: Middle English
- First known use: First attested in 1868
Word Breakdown
- Root: swithen, svíða, sviðna, swedan, *swīþaną