A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1467 entries
gumbo
Heavy, sticky, clay-rich soil that becomes an impassable, shoe-swallowing, vehicle-trapping mire when wet. Gumbo is the bane of the Northern Plains — dry, it’s hard as pavement; wet, it adheres to everything and multiplies.
Etymology
Louisiana French, from a Central Bantu language (possibly Kimbundu ngombo). The soil was named for its resemblance to the thick, mucilaginous soup — or the soup was named for the soil.