Source etymology 1
Original entry ↗An area of decayed vegetation (particularly sphagnum moss) which forms a wet spongy ground too soft for walking. · An acidic, chiefly rain-fed (ombrotrophic), peat-forming wetland. (Contrast an alkaline fen, and swamps and marshes.) · Boggy ground. · Confusion, difficulty, or any other thing or place that impedes progress in the manner of such areas.
To sink or submerge someone or something into bogland. · To prevent or slow someone or something from making progress. · To sink and stick in bogland. · To be prevented or impeded from making progress, to become stuck.
Inherited from Middle English bog (originally chiefly in Ireland and Scotland), from Irish and Scottish Gaelic bogach (“soft, boggy ground”), from Old Irish bog (“soft”), from Proto-Celtic *buggos (“soft, tender”) + Old Irish -ach, from Proto-Celtic *-ākos. The frequent use to form compounds regarding the animals and plants in such areas mimics Irish compositions such as bog-luachair (“bulrush, bogrush”). Its use for toilets is now often derived from the resemblance of latrines and outhouse cesspools to bogholes, but the noun sense appears to be a clipped form of boghouse (“outhouse, privy”), which derived (possibly via boggard) from the verb to bog, still used in Australian English. The derivation and its connection to other senses of "bog" remains uncertain, however, owing to an extreme lack of early citations due to its perceived vulgarity.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
This page abbreviates 7 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
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"An area of decayed vegetation (particularly sphagnum moss) which forms a wet spongy ground too soft for walking.",
"An acidic, chiefly rain-fed (ombrotrophic), peat-forming wetland. (Contrast an alkaline fen, and swamps and marshes.)",
"Boggy ground.",
"Confusion, difficulty, or any other thing or place that impedes progress in the manner of such areas."
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"To sink or submerge someone or something into bogland.",
"To prevent or slow someone or something from making progress.",
"To sink and stick in bogland.",
"To be prevented or impeded from making progress, to become stuck."
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