Also in some senses swallow’s tail. [f. SWALLOW sb.1 + TAIL sb.; corresp. to and in certain uses modelled on F. queue d’aronde, † d’arondelle (senses 5 and 6), G. schwalbenschwanz (2 b, 8, etc.), Du. zwaluwstaart, MLG. swalekenstert, LG. swalkensteert, etc.]
1. A tail like that of a swallow; a forked tail.
1703. trans. Perrault’s Abridgm. Vitruvius, I. iv. 30. The Sabliers … joined together by Tenons, in the form of a Swallow-Tail.
1775. Dalrymple, in Phil. Trans., LXVIII. 402. Two birds … with swallow-tails flying above the ship.
1842. G. Darling, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. No. 10. 4 Smelts of the Salmon with their silvery sides, dark purply fins, and swallow-tail.
1860. Mayne Reid, Hunters’ Feast, iv. The ‘passenger’ [pigeon] … looks not unlike the kite, wanting the forked or ‘swallow’ tail.
2. Applied to various animals having a forked tail. † a. Some kind or fish: see quot. Obs.
1683. Poyntz, Pres. Prosp. Tobago, 21. The green Swallow-Tail … a Fish not much bigger than a Herring.
b. A swallow-tailed butterfly.
1819. Samouelle, Entomol. Compend., 416. Papilio Machaon. The Swallow-tail.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 314. The swallow-tails, belonging to the family Papilionidæ, are among our largest and most common butterflies.
1880. C. R. Markham, Peruv. Bark, 173. One bright swallow-tail, with blue wings, fringed with crimson.
c. A humming-bird of the genus Eupetomena.
1861. Gould, Monogr. Trochilidæ, II. Plate 42, Eupetomena Hirundinacea. Swallow-tail…. This species being the most swallow-like member of the entire family of Trochilidæ.
1899. Evans, in Cambr. Nat. Hist., IX. 435. Eupetomena macrura of Brazil and Guiana, termed the ‘Swallow-tail’ from its forking rectrices.
d. A swallow-tailed kite.
3. A name for the white willow (Salix alba): also swallow-tail willow, swallow-tailed willow (see next, 2 b).
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 475. The Shining Willow, which they call Swallow-Taile.
1766. Museum Rust., VI. 81. The bright swallow-tail willow:… next to the Norfolk kind, it is the largest growing sort.
4. A broad or barbed arrow-head; an arrow with such a head.
1545. Ascham, Toxoph. (Arb.), 135. The one … hauyng two … barbes, lookyng backewarde to the stele and the fethers, which … we call … a brode arrowe head or a swalowe tayle.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxix. The English … sent off their volleys of swallow-tails before we could call on St Andrew.
† 5. = DOVETAIL 1 b, 2. Obs.
1548. Elyot, Securicla..., a swalowes tayle [1565 Cooper, swallowe tayle], or a doue tayle in carpenters woorke, whiche is fastnyng of two pieces of timbre … togyther.
1616. Bullokar, Eng. Expos., Swallowes tayle,… a fastening of two peeces of timber so strongly together, that they cannot fall asunder.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Builder, 594.
6. Fortif. An outwork characterized by two projections with a re-entrant angle between them, suggesting a swallow’s tail.
1688. Capt. J. S., Fortification, 78. Hornworks … are much more in use than the Tenailes, Swallow Tails, or Priests Bonnets.
1690. D’Urfey, Collin’s Walk, I. 11. He … all your Out-works would Assail, With his Eternal Swallows Tail.
1702. Milit. & Sea Dict. (1711), Queue d’yronde, or Swallow’s-Tail, a Detach’d or Out-work, whose Sides open towards the Head, or Campaign, and draw closer or narrower towards the Gorge.
1908. Mrs. E. Wharton, Hermit & Wild Wom., 3. Another hill, steep and bristling, raised against the sky a little walled town with Ghibelline swallow-tails.
7. The cleft two-pointed end of a flag or pennon; also, a swallow-tailed flag.
1697. Lond. Gaz., No. 3317/3. One with a White Flag, Swallow Tail at Main-top-mast.
1743. Bulkeley & Cummins, Voy. S. Seas, 5. The Commander in Chief being distinguish’d by a red broad Pendant with a Swallow’s Tail at his Main-top-mast Head.
1753. Scots Mag., Aug., 386/2. A yellow jack with a swallow-tail.
1835. Scott, Betrothed, xxvii. Methinks, instead of this old swallow’s tail, we should muster rarely under a broidered petticoat.
1844. Regul. & Ord. Army, 10. The Flag of the Guidon of Dragoons to be three feet five inches to the end of the slit of the swallow-tail.
1894. C. N. Robinson, Brit. Fleet, 89. The flag … is sometimes square, sometimes a swallow-tail.
b. The cleft tail-end of a vane.
1843. Grove, Corr. Phys. Forces (1846), 32. A wind … will instantly arrange these vanes in a definite direction, the arrow-heads or narrow parts pointing one way, the swallow-tails or broad parts another.
8. A swallow-tailed coat. colloq.
1835. Frith, Lett., 2 May, in Autobiog. (1888), III. 38. I don’t want a dress-coat; besides, I should look a regular guy in a swallow-tail.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., ii. The green coat had been a smart dress garment in the days of swallow-tails.
1871. ‘M. Legrand,’ Cambr. Freshm., 115. Mr. Golightly rose, divested himself of the loose coat he wore in the study, put on his black swallow-tail, and went down to the drawing-room without more abo.
1894. Wilkins & Vivian, Green Bay Tree, I. 33. The boys … exchanged their tweed coats for the regulation swallow-tails.
b. The tail or skirt of such a coat. rare.
1894. Latto, Tam. Bodkin, vi. I banged roon’ my hand, an’ lo, there was but ae solitary swallowtail to the fore!
1913. Play Pictorial, No. 130. The [ladies’] coat … slopes sharply away from the hips, and forms swallow-tails at the back.
9. attrib. = SWALLOW-TAILED: as in swallow-tail butterfly, coat, moth, pennon; also formerly applied to a cut of the beard with two points. See also swallow-tail willow in 3.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, Ep. Ded. A iv. Astrologicall Richard … most studiously compyled a profound Abridgement vpon beards, & therein … frutelessly determined betwixt the swallowes taile cut & the round beard like a rubbing brush.
1602. Rowlands, Greene’s Ghost (1872), 9. The vse of the terrible cut, and the Swallow-taile slash.
1745. Gleditsch’s Deutsch-Engl. Lex., Schwalbenschwantz … a swallow-tail-carving.
1749. Wilkes, Engl. Moths & Butterflies, 38. The Swallow-tail Moth … is bred in May and June. Ibid., 47. The Swallow-tail Butterfly is produced twice a year.
1786. Pogonologia, 27. Those different fashions of wearing the beard called, sharp-pointed, square, round, fan, swallow’s-tail, artichoke-leaf, &c.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xxi. (1818), II. 245. The swallow-tail butterfly (Papilio Machaon, L.).
1819. G. Samouelle, Entomol. Compend., 253. Our[apteryx] sambucaria (swallow-tail moth).
1848. Lowell, Biglow P., Ser. I. What Mr. Robinson Thinks. Parson Wilbur sez he never heerd in his life Thet th’ Apostles rigged out in their swaller-tail coats.
1852. Burn, Naval & Milit. Dict., II. (1863), Swallow tail scarf, assemblage à queue d’hironde.
1853. ‘C. Bede,’ Verdant Green, I. i. The toga virilis of stick-up collars and swallow-tail coats.
1884. E. Yates, Recoll., I. 45. [The Police, 1836–47] wore swallow-tail blue coats.
1891. Doyle, White Co., xiii. The heavy ash spear with swallow-tail pennon.
