Chiefly dial. and U.S. Forms: α. 6 snythe, 9 snithe. β. 7– snathe, 9 snaythe, snaith, γ. 8– sneath, 9 sne(a)the, sneeth. δ. 8– snath. [Variant of SNEAD sb., but all the forms are irregular and difficult to account for.] The pole or shaft of a scythe.
α. 1574. R. Scot, Hop Garden (1578), 28. Thys helue shoulde boowe somewhat lyke to a Snythe, or to the steale of a Sythe.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., s.v. Snathe, Snithe. The crooked handle or long shank of a mowing scythe.
β. 1691. Ray, S. & E. C. Words, 114. A Snathe, the handle of a Sithe.
1848. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., 317. Snathe.
1888. Addy, Sheffield Gloss., 224. Snaith or Snathe.
1899. Dickinson & Prevost, Cumbld. Gloss., 301/2. Snaythe.
γ. 1704. Dict. Rust. (1726), s.v. Snead, Sneath, the handle of a Scithe, or the like Tool.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 849. The handle, or sned or sneath,… is made either curved … or straight.
1866. G. Stephens, Runic Mon., I. 314. No Sithe could be handled without its pole or shaft or sneath or sned.
1907. ‘J. Halsham,’ Lonewood Corner, 150. The way to measure off the places for the two ‘doles’ or grips on the sneath.
δ. 1782. J. Scott, Amœb. Ecl., ii. Poet. Wks. 119. There crooked snaths of flexile sallow make.
1839. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., II. 231/1. An improvement in the Scythe Snath.
1864. Whittier, Wreck Rivermouth, 89. O mower, lean on thy bended snath.
1881. Metal World, No. 22. 343. Suppose the centre of gravity of the snath be … 4 in. from the body of the snath.
