Serbonian

American  

[ser-boh-nee-uhn] / sərˈboʊ ni ən /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or designating the large marshy tract of land in the northern part of ancient Egypt in which entire armies are said to have been swallowed up.

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Etymology

Origin of Serbonian

1660–70; < Greek Serbōní ( s ) ( límnē ) Serbonian (marsh) + -an

Example Sentences

That avenue was nicknamed “the great Serbonian bog.”

From The New Yorker • Jan. 19, 2017

Young students often get swamped and lose their way in the Serbonian bogs of learning, when they need to explore only a simple and plain pathway to a specific destination.

From How to Study and Teaching How to Study by McMurry, Frank M. (Frank Morton)

Into this Serbonian bog between them and us we let them flounder, instead of building out into their domain great and noble piers and wharves, upon which they can land securely and come among us.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 15, January, 1859 by Various

The engineer himself was declared to have been swallowed up in the Serbonian bog; and “railways were at an end for ever!”

From Lives of the Engineers The Locomotive. George and Robert Stephenson by Smiles, Samuel

Thou my Serbonian Bog art, where O'er leagues of mud, black vomit of the Nile, Crawls in the sun the myriad crocodile.

From The Two Twilights by Beers, Henry A. (Henry Augustin)