Swipple

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The swinging wooden piece at the end of a flail that strikes the grain when threshing
2. The free-swinging striking part of a flail, used to beat grain loose from its husks
3. A movable wooden bar fixed to a flail's handle that thumps the harvested grain during threshing

Etymology: A swipple is the swinging part of a flail, the free wooden section that whips down onto the grain. Its name comes from "swipe," a verb for a broad, sweeping blow. The link is visible in the object itself: the swipple is the piece that swipes, the part that delivers the blow while the handle stays in the farmer's hands. The noun is built on that verb, so its history is tied to the activity it names rather than to a separate, older root. Threshing by flail was once a routine part of farm work, and the tool's parts took names that described their motion. "Swipple" is one of those working names, preserved in dialect and older agricultural writing.