Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Indigenous languages ·1760s
Bayou
from bayuk
- Meaning
- A slow-moving, marshy waterway.
- Source word
- bayuk
- Route into English
- Choctaw *bayuk* (creek) → Louisiana French *bayou* → American English. The word is specifically Gulf Coast geography; using it elsewhere is always a Gulf Coast reference.
- Arrived
- 1760s
From Indigenous languages
A loose group: Nahuatl, Taino, Algonquian, Guugu Yimithirr, and others. Colonial contact produced many loans; the speakers were often systematically dispossessed of the land the loanwords described.
English borrows.
Browse the full loanword atlas or explore another source language.