bog

Where does the word "bog" come from? It comes from Irish bogach, and was adopted directly into English (1500s).

Bog’s story begins in Irish: bogach meant “soft wet ground.” From bog 'soft'; peat bog, like the vast Bog of Allen in the Irish midlands, once covered about a sixth of Ireland. It reached English by 1500s as bog. Taken into English during the Tudor wars in Ireland; bogs preserve 'bog bodies' such as Clonycavan Man, an Iron Age man found in County Meath in 2003. Today, bog means wet, spongy ground of decaying plant matter; (British slang) a toilet.

1. Stage 1 · Irish · medieval bogach "soft wet ground", from bog 'soft'; peat bog, like the vast Bog of Allen in the Irish midlands, once covered about a sixth of Ireland.
2. Stage 2 · English · 1500s bog "wet spongy ground", taken into English during the Tudor wars in Ireland; bogs preserve 'bog bodies' such as Clonycavan Man, an Iron Age man found in County Meath in 2003.