Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A body of water, such as a creek or small river, that is a tributary of a larger body of water.
- n. A sluggish stream that meanders through lowlands, marshes, or plantation grounds.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In the southern United States, the outlet of a lake, or one of the several outlets of a river through its delta; a sluggish watercourse.
- n. An abandoned portion of a river-channel forming a lake or swamp following the general course of the main stream: a special case of “ox-bow lake.” The bayous of the lower Mississippi river are typical.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Southern U. S. An inlet from the Gulf of Mexico, from a lake, or from a large river, sometimes sluggish, sometimes without perceptible movement except from tide and wind.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a swampy arm or slow-moving outlet of a lake (term used mainly in Mississippi and Louisiana)
Etymologies
- Cajun French bayou, from Choctaw bayuk ("creek"). (Wiktionary)
- Louisiana French bayouque, bayou, possibly from Choctaw bayuk. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The bayou is a French word meaning slow-moving waterway.”
“It's what they call a bayou in parts of Louisiana and Texas.”
“State had something this big to celebrate, Dale Brown was storming the sidelines in bayou country.”
“It wasn't until Favre went to Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg when he became known as a bayou gunslinger.”
“A lazy sluggish "bayou" -- as all the small watercourses in this country are Frenchifically termed -- glorying in the name of the "Tensas," runs, or rather creeps, by the door, before which -- on the margin of the stream -- stands one of those grand alluvial oaks which could canopy an army.”
“Because if they don’t, trips like this one to the tip of the bayou will be a distant memory for all generations to come.”
The Huffington Post: Rocky Kistner: To the End of the Bayou; a Gulf Memory for Our Kids
“The rain had slackened, and the light on the bayou was a dense green, the wake from a passing tugboat swelling over the banks into the roots of the cypress and oak trees.”
“The bayou is a fabulous place for secrets and intrigue as Micky learns the hard way while alos a delightful locale for eccentric characters.”
“But a bayou is a singular specific thing, usually with a proper name as well, like a river or a canal.”
“Between the horse stables and the bayou was a white-railed, sloping green pasture containing a fish pond and a small dock.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bayou’.
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Americanism
American words
finest, fast food, acclimate, aluminum, alphabetize, airplane, affirmative action, arugula, backhoe, bangs, base board, bayou and 162 more...
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Water always flows downhill
The path of least resistance, watercourses, plumbing....
swale, hollow, creek, crick, depression, holler, draw, ditch, corrie, cwm, continental divide, stream and 89 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2057 more...
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Words you were amazed to hear in a song
Amazed… or awestruck.
You might want to leave a comment with title and artist somewhere. Thanks.fuligin, lictor, slither, heinous, stigma, penance, conciliation, Urth, lino, acquiesce, halo halo, bo peep and 62 more...
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From the Algonquin et al.
Words derived from the innumerable languages of native Americans and the First Nations of Canada. I want to shine some light on this underexposed etymological background to so many common (and som...
raccoon, persimmon, mummichog, caucus, bayou, caribou, geoduck, chipmunk, skunk, opossum, moose, squash and 84 more...
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Color Words for Shoes
Vendors can get oddly creative.
amaranth, brindle, iguana, slate black, madder brown, bison, pinecone, seal brown, forest night, burnt orange, monument, beet red and 399 more...
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dandy's list
favourite words
cattywampus, wibble, fenagle, whisker, sneeze, wisteria, honeysuckle, clove, perihelion, glimmer, twilight, dusk and 264 more...
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the most beautiful
velvet, wainwright, susurrous, nutmeg, pegasus, tintinnabular, gossamer, lyricism, rococo, townlet, prince, nymph and 139 more...
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kat's words
ecumenical, cacophony, clatter, marimba, bamboo, saffron, slice, mercurial, pomegranate, cranky, slipshod, scritch and 511 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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the earth
Planetary chaos: terrain, landscape and geology excluding rocks. (See "the geologist" list for the latter.)
butte, karst, caldera, mesa, laccolith, cwm, crater, alp, precipice, sierra, badlands, prairie and 122 more...
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jagosaurus's favorites
Words I like mostly because of the way they sound and feel.
ticonderoga, petulance, snark, estimable, chickahominy, feline, gezellig, gneiss, shit, willy-nilly, shelter, coda and 366 more...
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ElRojo
R. Peter Jackson's list
cantillation, jackstaff, pullulate, whoremonger, colloquy, batman, anathema, idiosyncratic, facilitation, sympathy, empathy, satrap and 137 more...
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cloudjuice's Words
schadenfreude, sordid, promulgate, erratic, erroneous, amalgamate, sesquipedalian, incongruous, psychosis, etymology, simulacrum, serendipity and 988 more...
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Some Words I Love to Use
arcology, strumpet, crux, confected, pedant, bluestocking, cogitation, incensed, lovecraftian, cygnet, dactyl, adytum and 539 more...
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Fun Words
Words that have funny meanings or are just fun to say.
kumquat, chimichanga, sarsparilla, rutabaga, rumpus, flummox, encrusted, prestidigitation, pomegranate, preposterous, dentiloquist, sepulchre and 323 more...
Tweets
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