Bog

How to spell bog

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce bog

What does bog mean?

1. nounAn area of wet, spongy ground formed largely of decaying vegetation and peat.
2. verbTo become stuck or to cause something to become stuck, slowed, or mired.

Bog in a sentence

• noun

  The hikers skirted the edge of the bog to avoid the deepest mud.

• verb

  Too many small tasks can bog down an otherwise efficient team.

• noun

  Peat cut from the bog was once dried and burned for fuel.

• verb

  Endless paperwork tends to bog down the approval process.

Where does bog come from?

Language of origin: Celtic

The word comes from the Irish and Scottish Gaelic bogach, meaning a marsh or soft, marshy ground, which was itself built on the adjective bog, meaning 'soft' or 'tender'. English speakers borrowed it in the 1500s, originally describing the spongy, waterlogged peatland common across Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. The underlying idea of softness is the key to its modern meaning: a bog is literally ground too soft to walk on without sinking. From this physical sense English later developed the figurative verb 'to bog down', describing anything that becomes stuck or mired, much as a cart sinks in soft earth. Because it is a short Celtic loanword with a single hard consonant at each end, the spelling has stayed simple and stable.

How the word is built

• bog (whole word, from Irish/Scottish Gaelic bogach 'soft, marshy ground', from bog 'soft')