Swamp' in Early American Usage

The truth seems to be that the early settlers in New England had no specific word for what now would ordinarily be called swampy ground, perhaps because ground of this character in the section of England from which the colonists came had long been drained and cultivated when they migrated to America.... The word swamp first meant primarily thicket, land covered with undergrowth. It is still used in this sense by elderly persons in New England, though more generally the idea of wetness has become uppermost in the use of the word. The earlier sense is made certain by innumerable passages in seventeenth century records. There is frequent reference to the clearing of 'undergrowne stuffe' from the swamps, but nothing is said about draining or drying them.1

Biology · Geography · Swamp · Archaeology and Natural History · Ecology

• Generic Terms in the Place Names of Louisiana, an Index to the Cultural Landscape

  Randall A Detro, Randall Detro•1970

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