bayou

English

Bayou Corne in Assumption Parish, Louisiana in 2010

Alternative forms

• buyou (dated)
• byo (obsolete)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaɪ.(j)uː/, /ˈbaɪ.oʊ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

bayou (plural bayous)

1. 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!

2. 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

• 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

• Bayou of Pigs
• bayou physa

Translations

slow-moving creek or swamp

• Czech: mrtvé rameno, močálovité rameno
• Finnish: lutakko
• French: bayou (fr) m, marécages (fr) m pl
• Italian: acquitrino (it) m, ramo paludoso m
• Polish: bayou (pl) n
• Portuguese: brejo (pt) m
• Spanish: pantano (es) m, pantanos (es) m pl
• Swedish: bayou c

Anagrams

• Ayoub, Yoabu, boyau

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Choctaw bayuk (“creek”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ba.ju/

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ju

Noun

bayou m (plural bayous)

1. a stagnant body of water left behind by the meandering of the Mississippi River in Louisiana or elsewhere; a bayou

Further reading

• “bayou”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.