swage

From Old French souage (“decorative groove”), from soue (“rope”), from Vulgar Latin *soca, from Gaulish *souca (“cord”), from Proto-Celtic *soca, from Proto-Indo-European *seu (“to twist, bend”).

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈsweɪdʒ/, /ˈswɛdʒ/
• Homophone: suage

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swage (plural swages)

1. A tool, used by blacksmiths and other metalworkers, for cold shaping of a metal item.
   • 2003, Gene Logsdon, The Pond Lovers, University of Georgia Press (2003), →ISBN, page 45:

     "I made a swage and hammered out the test bars to the required .615 inch plus or minus .003, the thickness of a sheet of paper. […]

   • 2005, Mike McCarthy, Ships' Fastenings: From Sewn Boat to Steamship, Texas A&M University Press (2005), →ISBN, page 87:

     If he were making round or square-sectioned nails, the blacksmith also kept a "swage" near the anvil. If different sizes, shapes, and heads were required, the nailor had a a number of swages or a number of holes in the one swage.

   • 2008, Wilbur Cross, Gullah Culture in America, Praeger (2008), →ISBN, page 73:

     […] The blacksmith let me help out, hold the horse while he was putting the shoe on, turn the hand forge, clean up the shop. And after awhile he taught me names of everything. He'd say, 'Boy, hand me the three-inch swage,' and I had to know just what he wanted. I learned that way."

A swage may be variously shaped or grooved on the end or face, but typically involves working with cold metal by forcing it into a die.

swage (third-person singular simple present swages, present participle swaging, simple past and past participle swaged)

1. (transitive) To bend or shape through use of a swage.

From assuage by aphesis.

swage (third-person singular simple present swages, present participle swaging, simple past and past participle swaged)

1. Obsolete form of assuage.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

• Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN

• waegs, wages