Rant
Rant is now usually used to mean "useless start talking." Up until the middle of the 20th century, however, it referred to the loud, boastful and simplistic style of speech of the officers, the " casino style" when they were off-duty among themselves.
It was strictly distinguished from the official, deliberately laconic (concise) reporting and argumentation style , which above all had to avoid repetition.
Etymologically, the older swathing could play a role for “chatting a lot”.
origin
Originally the term "swagger" comes from the vocabulary of the fencing school : Wildly waving a saber or sword to keep the enemy away is called swathing in Jacobsson's Technological Dictionary from 1794. The transfer to the field of language has been documented since 1775. In literary terms , the word is used for the first time in Goethe's Urfaust (v. 1379). Lichtenberg uses it in this sense in one of his letters in 1787 ( Briefe , 2, 314).
Probably students were instrumental in spreading the new usage of the word.
Different word meaning
Swathing in the sense of setting up a squadron has been proven since 1753.
