Dictionary

bayou en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈbaɪ.oʊ/
• /ˈbaɪ.(j)uː/
• (US) audio

Etymology

From Louisiana French bayou, from Choctaw bayuk (“a creek”). Doublet of bogue.

Meanings

1. A slow-moving, often stagnant creek or river.
   • 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! 1892, Walt Whitman, “A Leaf for Hand in Hand”, in Leaves of Grass […], Philadelphia, Pa.: David McKay, publisher, […], →OCLC, page 109:
2. A swamp; a marshy (stagnant) body of water.
   • 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. 1886, Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, volume 2:

Forms

Deriveds

Bayou of Pigs · bayou beans · bayou physa · bayoulike

Translations (12)

pt brejo (slow-moving creek or swamp) · pl bayou (slow-moving creek or swamp) · fi lutakko (slow-moving creek or swamp) · it ramo paludoso (slow-moving creek or swamp) · it acquitrino (slow-moving creek or swamp) · cs mrtvé rameno (slow-moving creek or swamp) · es pantano (slow-moving creek or swamp) · fr marécages (slow-moving creek or swamp) · es pantanos (slow-moving creek or swamp) · cs močálovité rameno (slow-moving creek or swamp) · fr bayou (slow-moving creek or swamp) · sv bayou (slow-moving creek or swamp)