OED (2nd Edition 1989), shows an adjective resembling 'swift' has been in use in English language since C.E. 700 - 1,000. The first recorded use of 'swift' for the bird referenced by OED is Walter Charleton's 'Onomasticon Zoicon', a multi-lingual zoological dictionary/catalogue/taxonomy, of 1668. 🫡
![Image of the start of the OED 2nd Edition entry (Vol. 17 p. 401) for 'swift' as meaning 'A bird of the family Cypselidae, comprising numerous and widely distributed species, outwardly resembling swallows ... and noted for the swiftness of their flight; esp. the common [sic.] swift, Cypselus apus, a summer visitant to the British Isles and Europe generally'. Note that 'Cypselus' for the genus of birds including the Common swift was formerly used rather than 'Apus' - as now - which came in from a 1958 decision by the International Commission for Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) that Apus was to be used for birds rather for small crustaceans as in earlier taxonomy. See a further image extracted from the Wikipedia entry on 'Apus (bird) ~ Genus of birds' for details of progression of the taxonomy classifying the Common swift.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:skp2naswd5ekl4ujnmcxsskj/bafkreicdvsl7dpj6b6lnkbwfnqe2qi4ezrxkrzs2tbvnsob6sj3nqs5blq)
![Two paragraphs concerning Chimney Swifts (L. Chaeturia pelagica) on pp. 144-5
"The chimney swift originally nested in cavities and hollows among forest trees and is notable for the way it can fly downwards and upwards in very narrow vertical spaces. It somehow discovered that it could manoeuvre just as well in stone-lined chimneys in the homes of Euro-American settlers. The first such recorded nest in a house was from 1672. [Footnote 15] By the nineteenth century, however, there had been an almost wholesale switch of breeding site, which not only gave the bird its name, it unleashed an extension of range when colonists made their westward trek across the continent.
To the original domestic hearths, the swifts added air shafts, grain silos, mines, wells, factory chimneys, commercial and industrial buildings and - on occasions - by a bed in which children slept every night, or five metres from the blaze of a working forge furnace. For a high-risk location the prize may go to the pair that built on the ridge pole of an old barn, thirty centimetres from a huge hornets' nest. [Footnote 16] Their dependence upon the human-built environment means that chimney swifts hardly retain the old tree-haunting habit. In the last hundred years there have been fewer than ten recorded incidents where original arboreal sites have been used. [Footnote 17]"
Footnote 15
p. 83 Whittemore, Margaret, 'Chimney Swifts and Their Relatives', Nature Vook Publishers, 1981
Footnote 16
p. 264 Bent, 1984 is stated but possibly could be Bent, 1989 which is Bent, A.C., 'Life Histories of North American Cuckoos, Goatsuckers, Hummingbirds, and their Allies, Dover, 1989
Footnote 17
p. 413 Hoyo, Joseph del, Elliott, Andrew and Sargatal, Jordi, 'Handbook of the Birds of the World, Vol. 5: Barn-owls to Hummingbirds, Lynx Edicions, 1999](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:skp2naswd5ekl4ujnmcxsskj/bafkreic366q7uwwvtds3ynqeke6sursbb252zprabgqxazwhfe4jjcmrdu)
![Image of an extract from a Blog article at snowdoninfo.com:
Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) Info
THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS BAD WEATHER
Everybody has heard the quote: "There's no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothing."
Whilst some people will tell you that the phrase derived from Billy Connolly or Ranulph Feinned - and indeed they both said it at some point - it wasn't either of them who originally coined it. It was probably Alfred Wainwright- he of the many walking books - and his original wording, slightly different, was: "There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing." His comment appeared in his 1973 book 'Coast to Coast', so is now 50 years old. [There is an asterisk note here to see a footnote.]
Back in Wainwright's time (most of his walking was done from about 1950 to 1975) outdoor clothing was, needless to say, not what it is today. Although Gore-tex, for instance, was invented in 1969, patents were not taken out until the mid-1970s. Fell walkers of Wainwright's era invariably ... [Extract end. Note Yr Wyddfa is Welsh language name for the highest mountain in Wales called Snowdon in English language.]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:skp2naswd5ekl4ujnmcxsskj/bafkreid6uoh5qpuobc6t3fnopck45tahlczrqvkpmwsncezpo4kwdkpryq)
![This is a list of books written, or translated, by women that the poster either read, or re-read, during the calendar year 2024 extracted from a diary of all books read, both fiction and non-fiction. The list states the year of first publication in the original language.
The books are: Marie-Madeleine de La Fayette 'La Princesse de Clèves' (translated by Terence Cave) (1678 French), Jane Austen 'Sense and Sensibility' (1811) [re-read], Mary Elizabeth Braddon 'Charlotte’s Inheritance' (1868), Non-Fiction Sarah Gibson 'Swifts and Us: The Life of the Bird that Sleeps in the Sky' (2021), Non-Fiction Amy-Jane Beer 'Sparrows' (RSPB 'Spotlight On' series) (2019), Non-Fiction Faith Anstey 'Flowers in the Field: How to Find, Identify and Enjoy Wild Flowers' (2010), Elizabeth Bowen 'The Heat of the Day' (1948), Clara Reeve 'The Old English Baron' (1777), Mary McCarthy 'The Groves of Academe' (1952), Iris Murdoch 'The Bell' (1958), Charlotte Dacre 'Zofloya, or The Moor' (1806), Mary Shelley 'Frankenstein' 1818 [re-read], Ann Radcliffe 'The Romance of the Forest' (1791),Emily Brontë 'Wuthering Heights' (1847) [re-read], and a translation from French to English by Carol Cosman of the 1832 novella by Honoré de Balzac 'Colonel Chabert' published in 1997 by New Directions Publishing, New York.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:skp2naswd5ekl4ujnmcxsskj/bafkreidbehtnki6jb7dnl3uzozbnqcdtz3ombfvudlhz3guqzko2b64yzq)
