GRAPH-WIDE SEARCH
MEASURE THE GRAPH ↗NOT JUST A DICTIONARY LOOKUP
6 EVIDENCE COLLECTIONSSEARCH
THE GRAPH.
Find a modern word—or search sideways through reconstructed roots, historical forms, meanings, languages, scholars, sources, claims, disputes, and witnesses.
011
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
023
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
●
Present-Day English / Indo-European
bayou
a creek, secondary watercourse, or sluggish body of water
- DATE
- 1763–today
- MATCH
- exact historical form
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Louisiana French / Indo-European
bayouque
bayou; stagnant or secondary watercourse
- DATE
- Louisiana French; recorded 1723
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Choctaw / Muskogean
*bayok
proposed early Choctaw form for a bayou or watercourse
- DATE
- proposed early Choctaw
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
032
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 1
openproposedexact word
Is Choctaw bayuk a securely attested source of bayou?
No. An early Choctaw *bayok is plausible and accepted in a major handbook, but later bayuk is not securely attested and contraction to bók was conjectural.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 1
RANK 67GRADE Aexact ranked word
The Indigenous route is real scholarship—but not a closed case.
English securely borrowed Louisiana French bayouque. Early Choctaw *bayok is plausible, while the oft-repeated bayuk form and its contraction to modern bók remain insecure.
041
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
051
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
06
SEARCH IS DISCOVERY, NOT PROOF
EVERY RESULT OPENS A PERMANENT EVIDENCE RECORD.
Matching text only locates a record. It does not raise confidence, settle a dispute, establish cognacy, or turn a source report into direct inspection. Follow the result into its citations and editorial limits.