To Sworp

When David from Warren County, Indiana, visited relatives in Virginia, he heard about an inebriated man who was said to have entered a church and caused a ruckus while sworpin’ down the aisle. In Appalachia, the verb sworp, also spelled swarp, means “to move in a sweeping or staggering fashion.” David’s grandmother also described a perilous trip down an icy mountain road this way: We were just a-slidin’ and a-sworpin’ all the way down. This is part of a complete episode.