swamp
/ˈswɑmp/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.84 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An area of wet (water-saturated), spongy (soft) land, often with trees, generally a rich ecosystem for certain plants and animals but ill-suited for many agricultural purposes. (A type of wetland. Compare marsh, bog, fen.)
noun
The alleged corruption, cronyism, inefficiency, and entrenched interests in the federal government, especially in Washington, DC.
American usage
verb
To plunge into difficulties and perils; to overwhelm; to ruin; to wreck.
Example Sentences
- "Some small Marshes and Swamps there are, but more profitable than hurtfull."
- "The vast swamps of Southern Ontario proved a grim nightmare to the construction gangs. Treacherous and seemingly bottomless, the swamps swallowed thousands of tons of timber and debris, yet still afforded no firm surface on which the track could be laid."
- "We two...in this swamp of iniquity...together we can bring redress to an unjust world."
- "On InfoWars, Alex Jones told his audience, "This is over the top sickening. Next they'll say Jeffrey Epstein never even existed. This is the swamp winning. No one is buying this.""
- "The boat was swamped in the storm."
- "I have been swamped with paperwork ever since they started using the new system."
Etymology
Early attestations (starting in 1624) are from North America, but the term was probably in local use in Britain earlier. The etymology is not entirely certain; it is probably a fusion of Middle English swam (“swamp, muddy pool, bog, marsh”, also “fungus, mushroom”) — from Old English swamm (“mushroom, fungus, sponge”), from Proto-West Germanic *swamm, from Proto-Germanic *swambaz, *swammaz — and Middle English sompe (“marsh, morass”), from either Middle Dutch somp, sump (“marsh, swamp”) or Middle Low German sump (“marsh, swamp”) (from Old Saxon *sump (“swamp, marsh”)), both from Proto-West Germanic *sump, from Proto-Germanic *sumpaz. *Swambaz, *swammaz and *sumpaz are likely related to each other, but it is unclear whether they are of Indo-European origin or are substrate words or wanderworts. The word has alternatively been suggested to be a borrowing from Dutch zwamp (“swamp, marsh, fen”). Other cognates include Middle Low German swamp (“sponge, mushroom”), Dutch zomp (“swamp, lake, marshy place”), German Low German Sump (“swamp, bog, marsh”), German Sumpf (“swamp”), Swedish sump (“swamp”). Related also to Dutch zwam (“fungus, punk, tinder”), German Schwamm (“mushroom, fungus, sponge”), Swedish svamp (“mushroom, fungus, sponge”), Icelandic svampur, sveppur (“fungus”), Gothic 𐍃𐍅𐌿𐌼𐍃𐌻 (swumsl, “a ditch”). Related to sump, swim.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈswɑmp/
- British English: /ˈswɒmp/
Usage
- American usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
backswamp
Blackswamp
Greenswamp
palaeoswamp
paleoswamp
peatswamp
swampable
swampbilly
swampbuster
swampbusting
swampdragon
swamper