zwae

Probably from Middle English sweyen (“to go, to drop”), from Old Norse sveigja, from Proto-Germanic *swaigijaną.

The attested senses are a semantic loan from English sway; presumably this word had unattested senses directly inherited from Middle English.

zwae

1. rule
   • 1867, CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, line 12:

     unnere fose fatherlie zwae oure daiez be ee-spant,

     under whose paternal rule our days are spent;

zwae

1. to govern
   • 1867, CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, line 19:

     Wee dwyth ye ane fose dais be gien var ee gudevare o'ye londe ye zwae,

     We behold in you one whose days are devoted to the welfare of the land you govern,

• Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 114