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muskeg

[muhs-keg]
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noun
  1. a bog of northern North America, commonly having sphagnum mosses, sedge, and sometimes stunted black spruce and tamarack trees.
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Origin of muskeg

1765–75; < Cree maske·k < Proto-Algonquian *maŝkye·kwi swamp
Also called mas·keg [mas-keg] /ˈmæs kɛg/.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

bog, fen, glade, marsh, marshland, mire, moor, morass, mud, quag, quagmire, slough, swampland, everglade, holm, polder, swale, wetland

Examples from the Web for muskeg

Historical Examples

  • We certainly had muskeg enough yesterday and the day before.

    The Young Alaskans in the Rockies

    Emerson Hough

  • To my notion, this looks considerable like a muskeg just on ahead of us.

  • None the less, here is the muskeg, and here we are with our horses, and we must get across.

  • The muskeg, I must remind you, was drained and nothing found.

  • It was a five-dollar bill on the same bank we found at the muskeg!

British Dictionary definitions for muskeg

muskeg

noun mainly Canadian
  1. undrained boggy land characterized by sphagnum moss vegetationvast areas of muskeg
  2. a bog or swamp of this nature
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Word Origin

C19: from Algonquian: grassy swamp
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for muskeg

n.

kind of moss bog, 1865, from a Cree Indian word.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper