(a) A piece of timber used in building; a rafter, beam; a board; -- also coll.; firre sparre; hilinge of sparres, a roof; joininge of sparres, a roof or building; maister sparre, a main beam or……

For all words beginning with sw- from here to the end of this volume [of the print MED], the practice of the MED is to record all variant forms except those beginning with su-; forms with su- are……