Word of the Day

: June 9, 2008

morass

noun muh-RASS

What It Means

1 : marsh, swamp

2 a : a situation that traps, confuses, or impedes

b : an overwhelming or confusing mass or mixture

morass in Context

For Diane and Oscar, trying to adopt a baby meant getting lost in a morass of paperwork, but they knew it would be worth it.

Did You Know?

We won't swamp you with details: "morass" comes from the Dutch word "moeras," which itself derives from an Old French word, "maresc," meaning "marsh." "Morass" has been part of English for centuries, and in its earliest uses it was a synonym of "swamp" or "marsh." (That was the sense Robert Louis Stevenson used when he described Long John Silver emerging from "a low white vapour that had crawled during the night out of the morass" in Treasure Island.) Imagine walking through a thick, muddy swamp -- it's easy to compare such slogging to trying to disentangle yourself from a sticky situation. By the mid-19th century, "morass" had gained a figurative sense referring to any predicament as murky, confusing, or difficult to navigate as a literal swamp or quagmire.