Also 8 swomp. [First recorded as a term peculiar to the N. American colony of Virginia, but prob. in local use before in England; cf. quot. 1691 in 1 b, and the app. related SUMP sb.
Possibly taken in from LG., where, however, the sense of ‘marsh’ is not recorded (but cf. LG. swampen, used of the quaking of boggy land). The instance of the meaning ‘mushroom’ (sense 2), which was that of OE. swamm, may be due to an occasional borrowing from a foreign source.
Usually referred to the root which is the base of the several Germanic formations *swamp-, *swamb- and *swamm-, with the meaning ‘sponge’ or ‘fungus,’ represented by MLG. (LG.) swamp, OHG. (MHG.) swamp, swamb-, ON. svǫppr (:—*swampuz), MSw. svamper, Sw., Da. svamp, and OE. swamm, (M)LG., OHG. swam (G. schwamm), early mod.Du. swamme (Du. zwam), Goth. swamm acc. sing. The radical notion is perhaps preserved in Gr. σομφός (? :—*swombhós) spongy, porous.
For other possible relations sce SWAMP a. and SWANG.]
1. A tract of low-lying ground in which water collects; a piece of wet spongy ground; a marsh or bog. Orig. and in early use only in the N. American colonies, where it denoted a tract of rich soil having a growth of trees and other vegetation, but too moist for cultivation (see quots. 1741, 1766, 1875).
1624. Capt. J. Smith, Virginia, IV. 163. Some small Marshes and Swamps there are, but more profitable than hurtfull.
1685. Penn, Further Acc. Pennsylv., 7. Our Swamps or Marshes yeeld us course Hay for the Winter.
1688. Clayton, Virginia, in Phil. Trans., XVIII. 124 [Musk-rats] build Houses as Beavers do, in the Marshes, and Swamps (as they there call them) by the Water-sides.
1741. Tailfer, etc., Narr. Georgia, 96. A Swamp is any low watery Place, which is covered with Trees or Canes: They are here of three Sorts, Cypress, River, and Cane Swamps.
1766. Stork, Acc. E. Florida, 26, note. The word swamp is peculiar to America; it there signifies a tract of land that is sound and good, but by lying low is covered with water. All the forest trees (pine excepted) thrive best in the swamps, where the soil is always rich.
1875. Temple & Sheldon, Hist. Northfield, Mass., 21. Swamps.—As used by our fathers in the earliest times, this term did not necessarily denote marshy ground; but flat land which from its peculiar location had escaped the ravages of the annual fires set by the Indians, and was covered with an old growth of wood.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 145. Our men … shot a brace of deer, as they were feeding by the side of a swamp or moist ground.
1840. Thirlwall, Greece, liii. VII. 20. Ground which the rain had turned into a swamp.
1853. J. H. Newman, Hist. Sk. (1873), II. I. iii. 125. The Pontine Marshes, formerly the abode of thirty nations, are now a pestilential swamp.
1880. Haughton, Phys. Geog., v. 235. The river Desaguadero … falls into the salt lake and swamps of Aullagas.
fig. 1825. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. Convalescent. In this flat swamp of convalescence, left by the ebb of sickness.
1871. Morley, Carlyle, in Crit. Misc., Ser. I. (1878), 173. It has stagnated in the sunless swamps of a theosophy.
b. local. See quots., and cf. SUMP sb. 1, 2. Also, in Australia, a shallow lake or pond.
1691. Ray, S. & E. C. Words, 115. A Swamp, a low hollow place in any part of a field.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Swamp, a depression in a nearly horizontal bed, in which water may collect.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, Swamp, a depression or natural hollow in a seam.
† 2. A mushroom. Obs. rare–1.
1631. Widdowes, Nat. Philos., 39. In the body of the [larch] tree groweth Fungus Agaricus, a swamp or mush rome.
3. attrib. and Comb., as swamp-dweller, earth, land, -lover (see c), muck, mud, peat, region, shell, -side, soil, water; swamp-loving adj.; swamp-angel (see b); swamp-chain, -hook (U.S.), a long chain, a large hook used in swamping logs; swamp-fever, malarial fever prevalent in swampy regions; swamp-ore [G. sumpferz], bog iron ore.
1908. Rider Haggard, Ghost Kings, xiv. 193. The *Swamp-dwellers, who had their homes upon the banks of the Tugela.
1840. J. Buel, Farmer’s Companion, 47. To blend with it [sc. calcareous soil] quantities of peat or *swamp earth.
1870. Kingsley, At Last, xiii. A strong touch of his old *swamp-fever.
1877. Lumberman’s Gaz., 22 Dec. *Swamp Hooks, Pevys, Skidding Tongs always on hand.
1791. W. Bartram, Carolina, 95. A vast body of rich *swamp land, fit for the growth of Rice.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, ii. 151. The value of the swamp land varies with the wood upon it.
1826. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. II. 173 (Visit to Lucy). That *swamp-loving, cold-braving, shade-seeking plant.
1840. J. Buel, Farmer’s Comp., 73. Peat earth, or *swamp muck, is vegetable food, in an insoluble state.
1821. Mass. Spy, 21 Feb., 4/5. I agree that *swamp mud or, as the Scotch and English farmers call it, peat moss … is not manure.
1897. Gunter, Don Balasco of Key West, xiii. 160. His costume … is covered with swamp mud and coral dust.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 834. Bog-ore, *swamp-ore, and meadow-ore.
1863. Lyell, Antiq. Man, ii. 9. The lowest stratum, two or three feet thick, consists of *swamp-peat composed chiefly of moss or sphagnum.
1871. Napheys, Prev. & Cure Dis., I. i. 51. Exposed to *swamp-poison.
1875. trans. von Ziemssen’s Cycl. Med., II. 564. The warm *swamp-regions of the Australian coast.
1855. J. Phillips, Man. Geol., 409. One *swamp shell, viz., SuccinEa amphibia.
1677. W. Hubbard, Narrative (1865), I. 111. They were set upon by many hundreds of the Indians out of the Bushes by the *Swamp-side.
1883. Science, II. 39/1. Their projection above the level of the roots depending on the depth of the *swamp-waters.
b. In names of animals (mostly birds) inhabiting swamps, as swamp adder, bee, bird, etc.; swamp-angel (U.S.), a name for the hermit thrush and the wood thrush; also transf. or allusively; swamp blackbird = marsh blackbird (see MARSH 4 b); swamp crake, Ortygometra tabuensis, of Australia; swamp deer, Rucervus duvaucelli, of India; swamp hare, Lepus aquaticus, of the southern U.S., also called water-rabbit; swamp hen, a name for various rails, esp. of the genus Porphyrio (cf. marsh hen, MARSH 4 b); swamp partridge, the spruce partridge or Canada grouse; swamp pheasant, Centropus phasianus, of Australia; swamp quail, any species of the genus Synœcus, of Australia; swamp robin, the cheewink or ground-robin, Pipilo erythrophthalmus, of N. America; swamp sparrow, (a) a species of song-sparrow, Melospiza palustris, common in U.S. and Canada; (b) Sphenœacus punctatus of New Zealand, also called fern-bird; swamp warbler, one of several N. American warblers, as Protonotaria citrea and Helmintherus vermivorus.
1893. Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, Speckled Band, 207. It is a *swamp adder!… the deadliest snake in India.
1858. H. C. Kimball, in Jrnl. Discourses, V. 31/2. Angels who would thus visit you are *swamp angels,—they are filthy.
1872. Schele de Vere, Americanisms, 117. The Swamp Angel of General Gillmore, as his monster-gun in the swamps was ironically called.
1884. Burroughs, Wake-Robin, 38. The wood-thrush … is quite a rare bird,… being found in the Middle and Eastern States,… only in the deepest and most remote forests, usually in damp and swampy localities. On this account the people in the Adirondac region call it the ‘Swamp Angel.’
1885. H. C. McCook, Tenants Old Farm, 171. I have heard countrymen call the species of which you speak the *swamp-bee; its scientific name is probably Bombus separatus.
1796. Nemnich, Polygl.-Lex., *Swamp bird, the yellow-poll warbler, Motacilla aestiva.
1884. Seebohm, Brit. Birds, II. 230. Red-throated Pipit. It is very decidedly a swamp-bird.
1895. Cent. Dict., *Swamp-blackbird.
1895. Outing (U.S.), XXVII. 75/1. A huge flock of swamp blackbirds covered the ground.
1891. Cent. Dict. cites W. L. Buller for *Swamp-crake.
1891. Cent. Dict., *Swamp-deer.
1902. T. W. Webber, Forests Upper India, xxi. 312. A very fine specimen of the big swamp deer or barasingha, with 12-tined horns.
1801. Latham, Gen. Synopsis Birds, Suppl. II. 206. *Swamp finch. Fringilla iliaca.
1891. Cent. Dict., *Swamp-hare.
1897. Field, 6 Feb., 167/3. The swamp, or northern hare, is a big strong animal.
1898. Morris, Austral English, *Swamp-Hawk, another name for the New Zealand Harrier.
1848. J. Gould, Birds Australia, VI. pl. 70. Porphyrio Bellus,… *Swamp-Hen, Colonists of Western Australia.
1888. W. L. Buller, Birds N. Zealand, II. 81. The Swamp-hen is widely distributed over Tasmania, the greater part of the continent of Australia [etc.].
1874. Coues, Birds N. W., 394. *Swamp Partridge.
1847. *Swamp-pheasant [see PHEASANT 2].
1890. Lumholtz, Cannibals, 94. Although it is really a cuckoo, the colonists call it the ‘swamp-pheasant,’ because it has a tail like a pleasant.
1895. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, Game-Birds, I. 191. The Australian *Swamp-Quail.
1810. Wilson, Amer. Ornith., II. 36. In Virginia, he [sc. the Towhe Bunting] is called the Bulfinch;… in Pennsylvania, the Chewink, and by others the *Swamp Robin. Ibid. (1811), III. 50. The *Swamp Sparrow is five inches and a half long and seven inches and a half in extent.
1888. W. L. Buller, Birds N. Zealand (ed. 2), II. 255. The melancholy cry of the Fern-bird is so general and persistent that its nickname of ‘Swamp-Sparrow’ is not undeserved.
1884. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 291. Protonotaria, Golden *Swamp Warblers.
c. Denoting plants or vegetable products (chiefly of North America) growing in swamps, as swamp grass, plant, etc.; swamp dock, hellebore, hickory, locust-tree, mahogany, pine, privet, silk-weed (see these words); swamp-apple = honeysuckle-apple (HONEYSUCKLE 6); swamp-ash, Fraxinus sambucifolia, also called black, ground, hoop, or water ash; swamp azalea = swamp honeysuckle; swamp-broom = SWAMP-OAK 2 a (Morris, Austral Engl.); swamp-cabbage = SKUNK-CABBAGE; swamp-cheese = swamp-apple; swamp-cypress, the genus Chamæcyparis; also, the deciduous cypress, Taxodium distichum; swamp dogwood, Cornus alba and C. sericea; also, = swamp sumach; swamp elm, Ulmus racemosa, also called rock elm; swamp gooseberry, Ribes lacustre (Miller, Plant-n., 1884); swamp gum, various species of Eucalyptus, of Australia and Tasmania; swamp honeysuckle, Rhododendron viscosum (Azalea viscosa); swamp laurel, the swamp sassafras, Magnolia glauca; also Kalmia glauca; swamp-lily, (a) the American Turk’s-cap lily, Lilium superbum; (b) the genus Zephyranthes, of Mexico, S. America and the W. Indies; (c) the lizard’s-tail, Saururus cernuus; swamp loosestrife, Decodon verticillatus or Nesæa verticillata (Treas. Bot., 1866); swamp-lover, the stud-flower, Helonias bullata; swamp magnolia, Magnolia glauca (also called swamp laurel or swamp sassafras); also M. grandiflora; swamp maple, the red maple, Acer rubrum (Miller); also several other species, as the silver maple, A. dasycarpum, the mountain maple, A. spicatum, and the allied Negundo californicum; swamp-moss = bog-moss (BOG sb.1 3); swamp pea-tree, sensitive joint-vetch, Æschynomene hispida; swamp-pink = swamp honeysuckle; swamp rice = CANADA rice; swamp rose, Rosa carolina (Treas. Bot., 1866); swamp sassafras = swamp laurel; swamp sumach, the poison sumach, Rhus venenata; swamp tea-tree, species of Melaleuca, of Australia and Tasmania; swamp-weed, Selliera radicans (Miller); swamp willow, the pussy-willow, Salix discolor; swamp-wood, the N. American leather-wood, Dirca palustris. See also SWAMP-OAK.
1846. Zoologist, IV. 1281. The galls called *swamp-apples.
1847. Darlington, Amer. Weeds, etc. (1860), 214. The Azalea nudiflora, or wild Honeysuckle, has often a singular transformation of its flowers, the parts of the flower becoming enlarged and fleshy,… These succulent excrescences are much sought after by boys who call them ‘swamp apples’ and ‘swamp cheeses.’
1842. Z. Thompson, Hist. Vermont, I. 211. Black Ash. Fraxinus sambucifolia … is sometimes called *Swamp Ash.
1796. Nemnich, Polygl.-Lex., *Swamp azalea, Azalea viscosa.
1793. in M. Cutler’s Life, etc. (1888), II. 292. Our *Swamp Cabbage (or Dracontium foetidum).
1847. *Swamp cheeses [see swamp-apple above].
1876. trans. Heer’s Primæval World Switzerland, I. viii. 325. Taxodium distichum miocenum, the *swamp-cypress…. This species is completely analogous to the swamp-cypress of America (Taxodium distichum, Rich, sp.).
1817. W. Darby, Geogr. Descr. Louisiana, 353. Cornus alba. *Swamp dogwood.
1847. Darlington, Amer. Weeds, etc. (1860), 79. Poisonous Rhus. Poison Sumach. Poison Elder. Swamp Dogwood.
1817. W. Darby, Geogr. Descr. Louisiana, 356. Ulmus aquatica. *Swamp elm.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 82. Many specimens of … Bryaxis were beaten off of *swamp grass.
1907. C. Hill-Tout, Brit. N. Amer., Far West, vi. 119. Various swamp grasses, of which the bulrush is the commonest specimen [used in basketry].
1851. J. Mitchell, in Pap. & Proc. Roy. Soc. Van Diemen’s Land (1853), II. 132 (Morris). The *Swamp Gum grows to the largest size of any of this family in Van Diemen’s Land.
1889. Maiden, Usef. Pl. Australia, 27. Eucalyptus Gunnii … in South-Eastern Australia it is known as ‘White Gum,’ ‘Swamp Gum,’ or ‘White Swamp Gum.’ Eucalyptus viminalis,… The ‘White Gum,’ or ‘Swamp Gum’ of Tasmania.
1762. Eliot, in Mills, System Pract. Husb., I. 156. Take the roots of *swamp hellebore (known in different places by the several names of skunk cabbage, tickle weed, bear root).
1817. W. Darby, Geogr. Descr. Louisiana, 354. Juglans aquatica. *Swamp hickory.
1856. A. Gray, Man. Bot., 257. Azalea viscosa, Clammy Azalea. White *Swamp-Honeysuckle.
1787. T. Jefferson, Notes State Virginia (1787), 60. *Swamp laurel. Magnolia glauca.
1845–50. Mrs. Lincoln, Lect. Bot., App. 116. Kalmia glauca (swamp-laurel).
1814. Roxburgh, Hort. Bengal., 23. Crinum americanum. *Swamp lily. N. S. Wales.
1902. Cornish, Naturalist Thames, 180. On the green bank of our flower-bordered brook, the American swamp-lily finds its natural place.
1829. Loudon, Encycl. Plants, 868. Gleditschia … monosperma Ph. *Swamp Locust Tree.
1878. Meehan, Native Fl. & Ferns U.S., I. 36. *Swamp-lover.
1872. Schele de Vere, Americanisms, 422. The Sweet Bay is … not to be compared to the *Swamp Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora).
1886. T. Heney, Fortunate Days, 50. *Swamp-mahogany’s floss-flowered arms.
1796. Nemnich, Polygl.-Lex., *Swamp pea-tree, Aeschynomene aquatica.
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Abies, Pinus; Americana, palustris. The *Swamp Pine.
1840. Bigelow, Plants of Boston, 52. Azalea viscosa, Wild honeysuckle, *Swamp pink.
1775. Nat. Hist., in Ann. Reg., 942. Being a *swamp plant, a north-east aspect will be the properest situation at first to plant it in.
1896. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 326. From out its dark waters no swamp plant or tree grew.
1861. Bentley, Man. Bot., 697. A serviceable grain known as Canada Rice or *Swamp Rice.
1796. Nemnich, Polygl.-Lex., *Swamp sassafras, Magnolia glauca.
1829. Loudon, Encycl. Plants, 479. Magnolia glauca is deciduous. In America it is known by the names of white laurel, swamp sassafras, and beaver tree.
1887. Bentley, Man. Bot. (ed. 5), 618. Asclepias incarnata, *Swamp Silk-weed.
1721. Dudley, in Phil. Trans., XXXI. 145. The Poyson-Wood-Tree … is by some called the *Swamp Sumach.
1862. W. Archer, in G. Whiting, Products Tasmania, 29. *Swamp Tea-tree (Melaleuca ericæfolia).
1865. Mrs. M. C. Harris, Christine; or St. Philip’s (1866), iii. 13. The pond lay in a sort of basin, with low hills surrounding it on three sides—*swamp-willows dipping down into its brink.
