top of page
  • Paul Anthony Jones

Zwodder

(n.) a drowsy, sleepy, stupid state of mind or body



A lazy, drowsy, muddled-headed frame of mind is a zwodder.



That’s a dialect word from the far southeast corner of England; according to the English Dialect Dictionary, it was particularly associated with the county of Somerset, but there are variations of this word—including swother, swather, swatter and swodder—found all across the Britain.


Where does it come from? It’s a puzzling one, but it’s mirrored in an Anglo-Saxon word, swodrian, meaning ‘to become drowsy’. There’s likely some older Germanic root here too, as there was apparently a Middle Dutch word, swadderen, meaning ‘to stagger with drunkenness.’


Hi! We’re currently updating the HH blog, including all the tags (below). But with over 700 posts to reformat, well—apologies, this might take a while... 

​

For now, you can browse the back catalogue using all the tags from the blogposts we’ve already completed; this list will grow as more blogs are brought up to date.

 

Thanks for your patience in the meantime—and any problems or questions, just let us know at haggard@haggardhawks.com.

bottom of page