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''bayou'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''bayou'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260606201017-00-⌔

bayou - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Noun

bayou (plural bayous)

  • 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!1
  • 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.2

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈbaɪ.(j)uː/, /ˈbaɪ.oʊ/
  • Audio (US): 🔊

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1892, Walt Whitman, “A Leaf for Hand in Hand”, in Leaves of Grass […], Philadelphia, Pa.: David McKay, publisher, […], →OCLC, page 109: ↩

  2. 1886, Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant ‎, volume 2: ↩

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Secondary

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