bayou
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English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Cajun French bayou, from Choctaw bayuk (“creek”). Doublet of bogue.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]bayou (plural bayous)
- A slow-moving, often stagnant creek or river.
- 1892, Walt Whitman, “A Leaf for Hand in Hand”, in Leaves of Grass […], Philadelphia, Pa.: David McKay, publisher, […], →OCLC, page 109:
- You natural persons old and young! / You on the Mississippi and on all the branches and bayous of the Mississippi! / You friendly boatmen and mechanics! you roughs!
- A swamp; a marshy (stagnant) body of water.
- 1886, Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant[1], volume 2:
- At that time I had no staff officer who could be trusted with that duty. In the woods, at a short distance below the clearing, I found a depression, dry at the time, but which at high water became a slough or bayou.
Usage notes
[edit]- Used almost exclusively to refer to bodies of water in Louisiana and adjoining areas, including southern Mississippi, Alabama, eastern Texas, Arkansas, and Florida.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]slow-moving creek or swamp
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Anagrams
[edit]French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Choctaw bayuk (“creek”).
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]bayou m (plural bayous)
- a stagnant body of water left behind by the meandering of the Mississippi River in Louisiana or elsewhere; a bayou
Further reading
[edit]- “bayou”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Cajun French
- English terms derived from Cajun French
- English terms derived from Choctaw
- English doublets
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Louisiana, USA
- en:Wetlands
- French terms borrowed from Choctaw
- French terms derived from Choctaw
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:French/ju
- Rhymes:French/ju/2 syllables
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- fr:Landforms