Dictionary

lagg en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈlæɡ/ without æ-raising before /ɡ/
• /ˈleɪ̯ɡ/ Upper Midwestern US, Northwestern US, Canada
• [ˈlæɡ] without æ-raising before /ɡ/
• [ˈleɪ̯ɡ] Upper Midwestern US, Northwestern US, Canada

Etymology

Most likely from Swedish lagg (“moist, marshy area around a bog”), though compare the dialectal (Sussex, Somerset) English term(s) lag ("long, narrow, marshy meadow, usually by the side of a stream") and leg ("long, narrow meadow, gen. one which runs out of a larger piece of land"), apparently from leg (“limb”) (as of a body, or body of water). (Compare also Middle English lech(e) (“sluggish stream flowing through bog; bog”), usually attested with ch (whence English letch), but infrequently found as leg, lage in names.)

Meanings

1. Waterlogged, marshy area around the perimeter of a (raised) bog, where water collects.
   • Surface-water inflow is now largely confined to the lagg, or moat, often surrounding a bog's outer margins. 1995, John Eastman, The Book of Swamp & Bog, page 124:
   • Whenever one wants to get to a typical raised bog one usually has to wade through the more or less waterlogged lagg. On the bog itself in dry weather one could walk about in light shoes without getting one's feet wet. 1988, Heinz Ellenberg, Vegetation Ecology of Central Europe, page 329:

Forms

Coordinates

rand

Relateds

morass · fen · more in swamp