morass

English

Etymology

From Dutch moeras (“marsh, swamp”), from Middle Dutch marasch (“marsh”), from Old French mareis, from Proto-West Germanic *marisk. Doublet of marish and marsh.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /məˈɹæs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æs

Noun

morass (plural morasses)

1. A tract of soft, wet ground; a marsh; a fen.
   • 1853, John Ruskin, “Torcello”, in The Stones of Venice, volume II (The Sea-Stories), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, § I, page 11:

     Seven miles to the north of Venice, the banks of sand, which near the city rise little above low-water mark, attain by degrees a higher level, and knit themselves at last into fields of salt morass, raised here and there into shapeless mounds, and intercepted by narrow creeks of sea.

2. (figurative) Anything that entraps or makes progress difficult.
   • 1966, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 4, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York: Bantam Books, published 1976, →ISBN, page 67:

     I wrote to Sacramento about that historical marker, and they've been kicking it around their bureaucratic morass for months.

Derived terms

• morass-ore

Translations

tract of soft, wet ground

• Bulgarian: блато (bg) n (blato), мочур (bg) m (močur)
• Dutch: moeras (nl)
• Finnish: suo (fi), hetteikkö
• French: marais (fr), marécage (fr)
• Irish: bar m, seascann m
• Italian: pantano (it) m
• Latin: palūs f
• Ottoman Turkish: باتاق (batak), خلاش (hılaş)
• Plautdietsch: Moarauss m
• Portuguese: pântano (pt), banhado (pt) m
• Romanian: mlaștină (ro)
• Russian: боло́то (ru) n (bolóto), тряси́на (ru) f (trjasína)
• Sanskrit: पङ्क (sa) m (paṅka)
• Scottish Gaelic: boglach f
• Serbo-Croatian: blato (sh) n
• Spanish: pantano (es) m
• Swedish: moras (sv)

anything that entraps or makes progress difficult

• Belarusian: бало́та n (balóta)
• Finnish: suo (fi)
• French: bourbier (fr) m
• Italian: pantano (it) m
• Russian: тряси́на (ru) f (trjasína)
• Swedish: moras (sv), moras (sv)