The Zwar name had its origins in a Wendish surname.
The Wendish name is used in a variety of forms.
Swore
The surname of Peter ‘Swore’ as
recorded for his baptism
in the Gröditz Church records 1755.
Peter is the grandfather of the three Zwar brothers who emigrated to Australia.
Sswore
Below are examples of ‘Sswore’ as it was printed in the Wendish Newspaper ’Tydsenske Nowiny’ in 1852, when the Wendish Newspaper published Michael Zwar’s first letter home from Australia.
[Translation of the above]
‘Letter from Australia
Written by Michael Sswore of Drehsa,
brother of John Sswore, who emigrated
in August 1851..’
The letter is signed off as follows in the newspaper:
[Michael Sswore of Drozdzija (Drehsa)]
Swor Swora Swory
A Wendish Dictionary entry translated to the German
Swor, a und Swora,
y
(Sp. N. swor bz. Swora, Band, Flegelband,, “Schraube”)
Zwahr, Schwaru u. dergl.
Worterbuch den Nieder-Wendischen Sprache und ihrer dialekte.
Prag. 1928 [Dictionary of the Lower Wendish Language and its dialects.
Prague 1928]
Professor Dr. Ernst Mucke, Wendish Institute, Bautzen 1984
According to the dictionary the Wendish word ‘ swora’ is a
‘Tie,’ a ‘Bond’ or a ‘Link’ :
eg. A strip of leather used to hold the two wooden parts of a flail together.
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| Flail at Wendish Festival | Flail on wall, in Wendish Museum |
Or it is suggested it could also mean a metal or woodscrew.
In the polish language, also a Slavic language and closely related to
Wendish,
the word ‘zwar’ is used for the leather tie holding the two
wooden parts of the flail together.
To be romantic one might describe both ‘swora’ and ‘zwar’
as
‘The tie that binds together!’