Recently I bought a book called 'Landmarks' by Robert Macfarlane. It's a detailed overview of how the peoples of the British Isles used to be connected to the land they farmed and worked by their language. Much of this intimate relationship has now been lost, thanks to the spread of our modern, technological society and industrialised methods of working the land.
Anyway, Macfarlane has compiled a glossary of old and ancient words that were used in previous centuries to describe the hills, vales, coastline and moorlands of Great Britain, Scotland and Ireland. Being a life-long and unrepentant quicksand fetishist I couldn't help but notice that the glossary listed a number of words to describe the things that we love best - marshes, bogs, quagmires and treacherous areas of sinking mud.
Here's what I've gleaned from the book. Please note that I have no idea how these should be pronounced.
BOTACH reedy bog Gaelic
BREUNLOCH dangerous sinking bog that may be bright green and grassy Gaelic
BROCHAN miry soft ground (literally ‘porridge’) Gaelic
CORRACH bog, marsh Irish
CURAGH-CRAAEE quagmire Manx
DUB very deep bog or mire Shetland
LEIG-CHRUTHAICH quivering bog with water trapped beneath it, and an intact surface Gaelic
MUIREASC low-lying marshy land Irish
POLDER area of marshy or boggy land Kent
QUOB quicksand ; shaking bog Herefordshire
SLUNK muddy or marshy place, a miry hollow Scots
SUIL-CHRUTHAICH bog with water trapped under an intact surface layer of turf, which trembles on approach Gaelic
YARF swamp Shetland
Thanks,
Redjak6t4.
Other names for quicksand
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Re: Other names for quicksand
Fen would be another I think. In Boston, Fenway Park is named for a adjacent area still referred to as "The Fens" Also the word "Moor". I don't that is as old as Fen however.
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Re: Other names for quicksand
Fred588 wrote:Fen would be another I think. In Boston, Fenway Park is named for a adjacent area still referred to as "The Fens" Also the word "Moor". I don't that is as old as Fen however.
Just so, Fred. The Fens are a watery and swampy area of eastern England, including the county of Lincolnshire. An old town in this county is Boston.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston,_Lincolnshire
So, English settlers in the new world probably brought their local dialect with them. Perhaps the Fenway Park area was boggy ground before it was drained and built upon? If so, then there's your connection to the Fens in Lincolnshire.
Moor is another English that is associated with bogs and swamps. For instance...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hound ... illes#Plot
The fictional Grimpen Mire was supposed to be located on Dartmmor.
Here are some more 'quicksandy' words from Macfarlane's glossary.
Glaur muddy mess Galloway, Scotland
Gullion stinking mud-hole Galloway
Mizzy quagmire North Sea coast
Muxy miry and muddy Exmoor
Ees boggy floodplain Lancashire
Fachlach cracked surface of a dry bog Irish
Flash piece of low swampy ground Caithness, Scotland
Fluther soft ground, bog Caithness
Quaker boggy land that looks solid enough to walk on, but quakes beneath your feet Somerset
Slograch sinkhole or sump in a bog Irish
Melgreaves quicksands South Cumbria
This last one is significant. For two reasons. This is the first. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_More ... g_disaster
The second is that on a BBC documentary series called 'Coast' I recall seeing a Morecambe Bay guide interviewed about the treacherous sands.
He said that he had seen tractors disappear in seconds into one of the Melgreaves. But he made the word sound more like Mel-graves, stressing their association with death.
Thanks,
Redjak6t4.
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Re: Other names for quicksand
Its a common enough name and also spelled differently, but I have people with the name Moore in my family tree. Not sure what that means but it sounds cool.
Studio 588 currently offers more than 2200 different HD and QD quicksand videos and has supported production of well over 2400 video scenes and other projects by 13 different producers. Info may be found at:
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