bayou

noun

bay·​ou ˈbī-(ˌ)ü 

-(ˌ)ō

1

: a creek, secondary watercourse, or minor river that is tributary to another body of water

2

: any of various usually marshy or sluggish bodies of water

Synonyms

• affluent
• branch
• confluent
• feeder
• influent
• tributary

Examples of bayou in a Sentence

a small creek that is the bayou of a larger stream

Recent Examples on the Web

To date, that is the first official comment Del Rey has made following what was reportedly a low-key wedding that People magazine reported took place on the bayou in Des Allemandes, Louisiana on Sept. 26. —Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 3 Oct. 2024

The attraction will take guests through the bayou as Tiana prepares to throw a big Mardi Gras bash, to which everyone is invited. —Eve Chen, USA TODAY, 13 Feb. 2024

Guests join her and Louis the Alligator in a search through the bayou for a band. —Sandy Hooper, USA TODAY, 14 Nov. 2024

The singer and the airboat captain for alligator tours initially married on September 26 in Des Allemands, Louisiana, near the bayou where Dufrene offers tours. —Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone, 24 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Louisiana French, earlier bayouque, perhaps borrowed from early Choctaw *bayok, whence Choctaw bo·k "creek, river"

Note: A Choctaw source for the word has been claimed since Albert Gatschet, A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians, vol. 1 (Philadelphia, 1884), p. 113 (" … the Cha'hta word for a smaller river, or river forming part of a delta, is báyuk, contraction bōk, and occurs in Boguechito, Bok'humma, etc."). However, bayuk is apparently not attested in 19th/20th century Choctaw, and the notion that Choctaw bo·k, "creek, river," is a contraction of bayuk is simply Gatschet's conjecture. The earliest attestation of the word is apparently in the memoirs of the French carpenter André Pénicaut, writing in 1723: "A cinq lieues plus loin, en tournant tousjours à la gauche sur le lac, on trouve une eau dormante, que les Sauvages appellent Bayouque" - "Five leagues farther, always turning to the left along the lake shore, one comes to a stagnant body of water that the Indians call bayouque"; see Pierre Margry, editor, Découvertes et Établissements des Français dans l'Ouest et dans le Sud de l'Amérique Septentrionale (1614-1754): Mémoires et Documents Originaux, 5. partie (Paris, 1887), p. 385 (translated by Richebourg McWilliams in Fleur de Lys and Calumet, Being the Pénicaut Narrative of French Adventure in Louisiana, University of Alabama Press, 1981 [1953]). It should be noted that Pénicaut, who was resident in Louisiana from 1699 to 1721, was not the most reliable recorder of what the local Indians actually spoke: he also avers that maringouin "mosquito, gnat" and sagamité "stew or soup made with hominy" are the words used for these things by the local Indians, though both are in fact imports into North American French from other parts of the New World (Margry, op. cit., pp. 384, 386). However insecure the Choctaw etymology of bayouque, it is accepted in volume 14 ("Southeast") of the Handbook of North American Indians (Smithsonian Institution, 2004), according to which the ethnic name Bayacchyto (recorded in 1699 by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville) "seems to be early Choctaw *bayok-čítoʔ 'big bayou' … which in its later form bo·k-čítoʔ is preserved in the name of Bogue Chitto, a tributary of the Pearl River … " (p. 175).

First Known Use

1763, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

bayou

noun

bay·​ou ˈbī-ō 

ˈbī-ü

: a marshy or slowly flowing body of water (as a stream or inlet)