Swabs

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A tool composed of absorbent material utilized for cleaning, applying medicaments, or gathering samples
2. An implement designed to collect specimens, deliver medication, or maintain cleanliness in specific areas
3. A small stick with a soft tip used to clean surfaces, apply treatments, or collect biological samples

Etymology: "Swabs" is the plural of "swab," and the singular has an odd history: its earliest sense was a sailor's mop, not a cotton-tipped stick. In the mid-17th century, English speakers used the word for a mop for cleaning the decks of ships, and it arrived in that sense as a back-formation from the older "swabber," a sailor assigned to swab the decks. That older word came from Middle Dutch "zwabber," and behind it lies a Germanic base meaning something like "splash" or "sway," a root that also survives in the nautical German "Schwabber," meaning scrubber or mop. The sense of a small stick wrapped in cotton or gauze, used for cleaning a wound or taking a sample, is a later extension of that original mop. The mop was simply a bundle of cloth on a handle, so a much smaller version of the same idea gave us the modern object.

Synonyms: pads, wipes