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Bayou
BAYOUBAYOU, a term used throughout the South, may refer to bays, creeks, sloughs, or irrigation canals for rice fields. However, in the Mississippi River Delta region of Louisiana and Mississippi, it chiefly refers to the sluggish offshoots of rivers that meander through marshes and alluvial lowlands in the flat delta. During floods, the river may break through its curving banks to forge a more direct channel. The old channel, having lost the principal flow, becomes a sluggish stretch of brown water called a bayou. Some larger examples, such as Bayou Lafourche, are remnants of belts the Mississippi once followed to the Gulf of Mexico. Five times in the last five thousand years, the Mississippi has shifted to an entirely new course. In 1963 the Army Corps of Engineers installed a dam to try to prevent the Mississippi from diverting into the Atchafalaya River, a diversion that could leave New Orleans on a bayou. The term "bayou" most likely came from the Choctaw bayuk ("small sluggish stream"), although some sources insist it is derived from the French boyau ("gut" or "channel"). When boats were virtually the only means of transportation in the delta region, much human activity focused on bayous. Legendary pirate Jean Laffite used Bayou Barataria in southeastern Louisiana as his headquarters in the early 1800s. Bayou Pierre, southwest of Jackson, Mississippi, was an obstacle well known to travelers on the Natchez Trace. Antebellum planters romanticized the bayous' beauty, building colonnaded mansions among moss-draped live oaks on the shores. During the Civil War, Confederates used bayous flowing into the Gulf to run weapons, medical supplies, and other contraband past the Union blockade. Today bayous are used for flood control, fishing, and even recreation. Louisiana has incorporated several bayous into its state parks. BIBLIOGRAPHYBalée, William, ed. Advances in Historical Ecology. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Kane, Harnett T. The Bayous of Louisiana. New York: Morrow, 1943. McPhee, John. The Control of Nature. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1989. Robert W.Twyman/w. p. See alsoAcadia ; Houma ; Mississippi River . |
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"Bayou." Dictionary of American History. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Bayou." Dictionary of American History. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3401800396.html "Bayou." Dictionary of American History. 2003. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3401800396.html |
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bayou
bayou [Louisiana Fr.; from Choctaw bayuk =small stream], term used mainly in U.S. Gulf states, especially Louisiana and Mississippi, to describe a stationary or sluggishly moving body of water that was once part of a lake, river, or gulf and is swampy or marshy in nature. Bayou is sometimes used as a synonym for oxbow lake, a former meander in a river valley cut off from that stream. |
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"bayou." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "bayou." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-bayou.html "bayou." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-bayou.html |
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bayou
bay·ou / ˈbīoō; ˈbīō/ • n. (pl. -ous ) a slow-flowing stream in a swampy area. |
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"bayou." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "bayou." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-bayou.html "bayou." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-bayou.html |
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bayou
bayou XVIII. — Amer. F. — a Choctaw word.
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T. F. HOAD. "bayou." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. T. F. HOAD. "bayou." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-bayou.html T. F. HOAD. "bayou." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-bayou.html |
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bayou
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"bayou." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "bayou." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-bayou.html "bayou." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-bayou.html |
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