bedswerver (bed-SWUR-vuhr) noun

Quote:
"I knew that she was a bedswerver, aiming to sweep out from her hubby's cot into mine."
Richard Flanagan; Gould's Book of Fish; Grove Press; 2002.

Hello, ginger!
Although I'm still sweorfan between Redwood Range and Pacific Ocean coastline, I must jump in on this one for just this once.

' Swerver ' is certainly directly related to the Dutch word zwerver, but the Dutch did not invent nor ever use the word ' bedzwerver'. (the practice of course is not unknown) I would put the responsability for this word fully to the Anglo-Saxons.

I tried the find something about the book Anu quotes from, but found nul. What would Gould' s fishes have to do with this so called 'bedswerver'?

A Fish Called Wanda?