different between swamp vs swale

English

Alternative forms

• swomp (obsolete)

Etymology

From a fusion of Middle English swam (“swamp, muddy pool, bog, marsh", also "fungus, mushroom”), from Old English swamm (“mushroom, fungus, sponge”), and Middle English sompe (“marsh, morass”), from Middle Dutch somp, sump (“marsh, swamp”), or Middle Low German sump (“marsh, swamp”), from Old Saxon *sump (“swamp, marsh”); all from Proto-Germanic *sumpaz. Cognate with Dutch zwamp (“swamp, marsh, fen”), Middle Low German swamp (“sponge, mushroom”), Dutch zomp (“swamp, lake, marshy place”), German Low German Sump (“swamp, bog,marsh”), German Sumpf (“swamp”), Swedish sump (“swamp”). Related also to Dutch zwam (“fungus, punk, tinder”), German Schwamm (“mushroom, fungus, sponge”), Swedish svamp (“mushroom, fungus, sponge”), Icelandic svampur, sveppur (“fungus”), Gothic ???????????????????????? (swumsl, “a ditch”). Related to sump, swim.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sw?mp/
• (US) IPA^(key): /sw?mp/
• Rhymes: -?mp

Noun

swamp (plural swamps)

1. A piece of wet, spongy land; low ground saturated with water; soft, wet ground which may have a growth of certain kinds of trees, but is unfit for agricultural or pastoral purposes.
2. A type of wetland that stretches for vast distances, and is home to many creatures which have adapted specifically to that environment.
3. (figuratively) A place or situation that is foul or where progress is difficult.

Derived terms

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: swampu
• ? Dutch: zwamp

Translations

See also

• bog
• marsh
• moor

Verb

swamp (third-person singular simple present swamps, present participle swamping, simple past and past participle swamped)

1. To drench or fill with water.

2. To overwhelm; to make too busy, or overrun the capacity of.
   • 2006, New York Times,

     Mr. Spitzer’s defeat of his Democratic opponent ... ended a primary season in which Hillary Rodham Clinton swamped an antiwar challenger for renomination to the Senate.

3. (figuratively) To plunge into difficulties and perils; to overwhelm; to ruin; to wreck.
   • 1874, John Richard Green, A Short History of the English People

     The Whig majority of the house of Lords was swamped by the creation of twelve Tory peers.

   • c. 1835, William Hamilton, "Metaphysics and Moral Science", in Edinburgh Review

     Having swamped himself in following the ignis fatuus of a theory […]

Translations

Anagrams

• wamps

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swe?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l

Etymology 1

Possibly from Middle English swale (“a shady place, a shadow”), perhaps of North Germanic origin; akin to Old Norse svalr (“cool, fresh”), Icelandic svalir (“a balcony running along a wall”).

Noun

swale (plural swales)

1. A low tract of moist or marshy land.
2. A long narrow and shallow trough between ridges on a beach, running parallel to the coastline.
3. A shallow troughlike depression that's created to carry water during rainstorms or snow melts; a drainage ditch.
4. Bioswale, a shallow trough dug into the land on contour (horizontally with no slope), whose purpose is to allow water time to percolate into the soil.
   • 2009, Toby Hemenway, Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, 2nd Edition, Chelsea Green Publishing (?ISBN), page 101:

     The stored water creates an underground reservoir that aids plant growth for tens of feet below the swale. Swales also prevent gullies from forming by intercepting rainwater, slowing it, spreading it, and storing it in the soil.

5. A shallow, usually grassy depression sloping downward from a plains upland meadow or level vegetated ridgetop.

   • Jane climbed a few more paces behind him and then peeped over the ridge. Just beyond began a shallow swale that deepened and widened into a valley, and then swung to the left.

Translations

Etymology 2

See sweal.

Noun

swale (plural swales)

1. (Britain, dialectal) A gutter in a candle.

Verb

swale (third-person singular simple present swales, present participle swaling, simple past and past participle swaled)

1. Alternative form of sweal (melt and waste away, or singe)

Anagrams

• Wales, alews, lawes, sweal, wales, weals

Middle English

Noun

swale

1. Alternative form of whale