Dictionary

morass en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /moˈɹæs/ (General-American)
• /məˈɹæs/ (General-American)

Etymology

From Dutch moeras (“marsh, swamp”), an alteration (with influence from Dutch moer (“moor”)) of a direct descendant of Middle Dutch marasch (“marsh”). The Middle Dutch word is a borrowing from Old French mareis, from Proto-West Germanic *marisk. Doublet of marish and marsh, and linked in part to moor. Compare quagmire.

Meanings

1. A tract of soft, wet ground; a marsh; a fen.
   • Seven miles to the north of Venice, the banks of sand, which near the city rise little above low-water mark, attain by degrees a higher level, and knit themselves at last into fields of salt morass, raised here and there into shapeless mounds, and intercepted by narrow creeks of sea. 1853, John Ruskin, “Torcello”, in The Stones of Venice, volume II (The Sea-Stories), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, § I, page 11:
2. (figuratively) Anything that entraps or makes progress difficult.
   • I wrote to Sacramento about that historical marker, and they've been kicking it around their bureaucratic morass for months. 1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 4, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 67:
   • The gay man must fully understand the reasons why he is as he is, and face the mass of unconscious shit put there by our society. This is the great morass between the philosophy and the actualization. 1974 February 16, Ian Johnson, “The Giving Up Of Power”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 34, page 5:

Forms

Deriveds

morass-weed · morassy · morass-ore

Translations (49)

pl gąszcz (anything that entraps or makes progress difficult) · pl mokradło (tract of soft, wet ground) · ota باتاق (tract of soft, wet ground) · cs marast (anything that entraps or makes progress difficult) · pt banhado (tract of soft, wet ground) · ru боло́то (tract of soft, wet ground) · es pantano (tract of soft, wet ground) · bg мочур (tract of soft, wet ground) · bg блато (tract of soft, wet ground) · la palūs (tract of soft, wet ground) · pl moczar (tract of soft, wet ground) · be бало́та (anything that entraps or makes progress difficult) · cs bahno (tract of soft, wet ground) · pl błoto (tract of soft, wet ground) · ro mlaștină (tract of soft, wet ground) · fr marais (tract of soft, wet ground) · ota خلاش (tract of soft, wet ground) · es almarjal (tract of soft, wet ground) · pdt Moarauss (tract of soft, wet ground) · pl grzęzawisko (tract of soft, wet ground) · sh blato (tract of soft, wet ground) · sv moras (tract of soft, wet ground) · nl moeras (tract of soft, wet ground) · it pantano (tract of soft, wet ground) · tr bataklık (tract of soft, wet ground) · sa पङ्क (tract of soft, wet ground) · sv moras (anything that entraps or makes progress difficult) · ru тряси́на (tract of soft, wet ground) · es armajal (tract of soft, wet ground) · ga bar (tract of soft, wet ground) · hu hínár (anything that entraps or makes progress difficult) · es marjal (tract of soft, wet ground) · pl trzęsawisko (tract of soft, wet ground) · fi hetteikkö (tract of soft, wet ground) · fr marécage (tract of soft, wet ground) · ga seascann (tract of soft, wet ground) · pl bagno (anything that entraps or makes progress difficult) · pl błoto (anything that entraps or makes progress difficult) · ru тряси́на (anything that entraps or makes progress difficult) · fi suo (tract of soft, wet ground) · es marisma (tract of soft, wet ground) · cs močál (tract of soft, wet ground) · it pantano (anything that entraps or makes progress difficult) · pl bagno (tract of soft, wet ground) · fi suo (anything that entraps or makes progress difficult) · cs bažina (tract of soft, wet ground) · pt pântano (tract of soft, wet ground) · gd boglach (tract of soft, wet ground) · fr bourbier (anything that entraps or makes progress difficult)