Meaning

noun the space created by the swing of a scythe or the cut of a mowing machine

noun a path or strip (as cut by one course of mowing)

originFrom Middle English swath, swathe, from Old English swæþ, swaþu (“track; trace; footstep”), from Proto-Germanic *swaþō (“a wind-swept place; open field”), of unknown further origin. Has been derived from a Proto-Indo-European *swey- (“to bend, turn, swing”), and compared with Ancient Greek σιμός (simós, “snub-nosed”) and Welsh chwil (“reeling, staggering”), though this is uncertain, as well as…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0