I had a moment of unnerving clarity last night whilst brushing my teeth.

One length is a Lap. Both in accepted swimming terms and, more importantly, grammatically.

As discussed the word Lap comes from the Old English 'Lappen' meaning a piece of cloth that returns on itself (a LAPel for example, or the front of a skirt or robe as it wraps round on top of itself ... which is why your physical lap is called a lap).

The swim term is somewhat confused by the track term. A track lap is completed when you get back to the start. So it it effectively a circuit. But that is not what lap means grammatically.

Grammatically a lap, based on Lappen, is when you double back on yourself or start to retrace / repeat your route. At a track this happens to be a full curcuit but lap denotes the point at which you would start to overLAP your route. At a swimming pool you would start to overLAP your travel at one end of the pool.

So, a lap is not a full circuit, although it can be. It is the point at which you overlap yourself. And in a pool this would indicate a single length because you start to overlap yourself when you start to return on the second length.

The fact that some people call a return to start, two lengths, is likely grammatically (and indeed historically in swim terminology) incorrect. Although if something has been incorrect for long enough it starts to become colloquially correct as the meaning is effectively changing.

There, I feel much better now.

Grammatically a lap, based on Lappen, is when you double back on yourself or start to retrace / repeat your route. At a track this happens to be a full curcuit but lap denotes the point at which you would start to overLAP your route. At a swimming pool you would start to overLAP your travel at one end of the pool.

So, a lap is not a full circuit, although it can be. It is the point at which you overlap yourself. And in a pool this would indicate a single length because you start to overlap yourself when you start to return on the second length.

If I swim halfway down the pool, stop, and turn to swim back, then by your definition, I have completed a lap.

Turning and beginning to come back the same way you went is not a lap because you are not retracing your path, you are still making a new path.

For instance, let's say you are running a triathlon run that is a two lap out and back. Are you going to run out and call it one lap then run back and say you have completed two laps? No, you are going to run out, turn around, run back along the same path (in reverse direction) and then say you have completed ONE lap. After that, you will begin to "overlap yourself" by starting the second "out" portion of the two loop out and back.

Swimming is like a short out and back. You don't call it a lap until you have finished the back portion and begin to "overlap yourself." You do not begin to "overlap yourself" by swimming the same portion in the opposite direction, that is not overlap.

Thanks for clarifying :)

But what if I am circle swimming and don't overlap my route? Swim up the left side, flip turn off the middle of the wall and return on the right side. Kinda like a really skinny track.

By your own definition, a lap would be once you have completed a length there and a length back and then begin to "overlap yourself." Turning and beginning to come back the same way you went is not a lap because you are not retracing your path, you are still making a new path.

For instance, let's say you are running a triathlon run that is a two lap out and back. Are you going to run out and call it one lap then run back and say you have completed two laps? No, you are going to run out, turn around, run back along the same path (in reverse direction) and then say you have completed ONE lap. After that, you will begin to "overlap yourself" by starting the second "out" portion of the two loop out and back.

Swimming is like a short out and back. You don't call it a lap until you have finished the back portion and begin to "overlap yourself." You do not begin to "overlap yourself" by swimming the same portion in the opposite direction, that is not overlap.

Thanks for clarifying :)

Ah. This is the smartest insight I've read so far.

As far as being mental or not, my philosophy class has been driving me nuts lately--it makes me overthink things. I'm a victim, really, of my personal propensity to ponder. I like studying words too.

Believe it or not I'm actually a senior in aerospace engineering, not a liberal arts major.

You are referring to the terms it has become. I was talking about the original term. A Lappen is effectively where you start to overlap, or originally in Old English, where the material starts to sit on top of itself.

No it isn't. A lapel for example is not laid over an entire other piece, or a robe that partially returns over its initial piece.

We are not constructing garments but the origin of the word is important. Like I said, the word has been re-used which causes ambiguity. The word may have also changed meaning, as words can, through use.

Like I have said in numerous posts. This is likely the origin of the word lap when used in sport but once you bastardize a word for your own use you have effectively opened the floodgates because whatever people think is neither wrong or right. If people refer to a lap as a length or 2 lengths, they are not wrong or right. How can they be? Who's the judge? From a communication point of view using the word 'length' would seem a far clearer way of explaining what is meant regardless of whether it that is what it is called traditionally. A word is useless if it does not communicate effectively. And lap would seem to fall into that category now. If you say the word lap no-one knows which side of the lap fence you are sitting on unless you happen to be ensconced in your own group of Lap devotees.

I am going to swim 2 lengths leaves people knowing exactly what you mean. 2 laps does not.

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