Swaths keep growing

Swath is a popular journalese description of an area the reporter can’t describe in specific dimensions or length, or in the classic comparative: “the size of Rhode Island.” A swath is definitely not what the American Heritage Dictionary says it is: “1.The width of a scythe stroke or a mowing-machine blade 2. A path of this width in mowing. 3. Something likened to a swath.” The media is continuously finding larger and larger swaths. Here is the largest I’ve seen recently, in an AP story, Jan. 31, 2017, about the U.S. military’s online fight against ISIS: “The information operations division that runs WebOps is the command’s epicenter for firing back at the Islamic State’s online propaganda machine, using the Internet to sway public opinion in a swath of the globe that stretches from Central Asia to the Horn of Africa.”

Keep a sharp watch. Soon, a swath will cover the world.

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