Sphagnum, Sump, Swamp: Origins, Forms, Histories of Words Meaning Marsh, Swamp

The natural features of a region are its topography (Greek topos, "place"). Marshes, swamps, and related areas are important kinds of topographic features.

In the current alphabetic series of terms that refer to such places, here are the origins, forms, and histories of sphagnum, sump, and swamp. The dates of forms and meanings come from the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

Sphagnum
Sphagnum entered English in the 18th century as a New Latin word derived from Latin sphagnos ("a moss"), from Greek sphagnos.

The word sphagnum (1741) denotes any moss in an order (Sphagnales, containing a single genus, Sphagnum) of atypical mosses that grow only in wet acid areas where their remains become compacted with other plant debris to form peat. Synonymous terms are sphagnum moss and peat moss.

More than 160 species make up the genus Sphagnum. They grow in dense masses in bogs and swamps, around ponds, on moist cliffs, and on lakeshores from tropical to subpolar regions.

Sphagnum mosses are pale green to deep red and can hold 20 times their weight in water. When they die and compress, they form organic peat, which humans harvest, dry, and use for many purposes, such as fuel. Most people are familiar with sphagnum, or peat moss, as a mixture to add to home gardens to increase soil moisture and to reduce erosion.

Sump
Sump comes from Middle English sompe (15th century), from Middle Dutch somp ("morass"). The word is akin to Middle High German sumpf ("marsh") and Greek somphos ("spongy").

A marsh, swamp, or morass is also known as a sump (15th century).

Other senses of the word include the lowest part of a mine shaft into which water drains (17th century) and, more generally, any pit or reservoir serving as a drain for liquids (17th century).

Swamp
Swamp entered English in the 17th century, probably as an alteration of Middle English sompe ("sump, morass," see sump above).

The word swamp was first recorded in the North American colonies (1624), where it denoted a tract of land that had rich soil for growing trees and other vegetation but too much moisture for cultivation.

Today a swamp is a freshwater wetland saturated and often partially or intermittently covered with water, especially such land dominated by trees or shrubs. A marsh, in contrast, is characterized by soft-stemmed vegetation.

A shrub swamp, dominated by such plants as alder and pussy willow, often represents a transitional phase from a marsh to a tree-dominated swamp. Swamps themselves often intergrade to grassy marsh on the one hand and wet forest on the other.

A synonymous term for a swamp is swampland (1662).

Swamps occur throughout the world.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica Ready Reference 2004. CD-ROM. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2006.

Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. 3rd ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2007.

The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1989.