Bayou vs. Creek

Factual Questions
1

While in Dallas yesterday, I went by Turtle Creek. At least I think that was the name. It went through Lee park. It got me thinking, if this was in Houston, it would be called a bayou.

The term “bayou” seems to be common in Louisiana and east Texas, and maybe points east near the coastal plains of the Gulf of Mexico. Beyond that they are called creeks. Even in Sugarland, just southwest of Houston, there is Oyster Creek, not Oyster Bayou. The French never really made inroads into Texas. The Spanish made nominal inroads at best, setting up a few isolated missions. Nothing major outside San Antonio. The French Americans were better known as commercial traders with indians, as opposed to christianizing, killing, or relocating them. This may have played a role.

I assume the term “bayou” is French, possibly having native american roots. I looked both terms up in the dictionary back at my folks house, and they both have similar definitions. One of the definitions of bayou is “a creek.”

Is there a difference? What about language differences? What is the extent of calling streams “Bayou”?

2

I’m WAGing that it’s mainly a matter of who named whatever body of water, and the French influence (whether via the like of LaSalle or the Acadians) spread westward somewhat from Louisiana. Most of the bayous in Texas are east of (or in) Houston (I guess Chocolate Bayou might be a little bit west of us).

We have both creeks and bayous here, and many past cultural influences.

3

I always thought it was odd that Houston was called the “Bayou City.” Honestly I don’t think we have too many bayous. Not like anything in Louisiana. I thought maybe a bayou was sort of like a cross between a swamp and a creek. Apparantly mistaken.

4

A dominant feature of Houston is Buffalo Bayou, basis for the Ship Channel that makes Houston one of the preeminent port cities in North America. There are several others that affect the way the city’s developed, such as Braes Bayou, White’s Bayou and Greens Bayou. They’re not swamps, although some bayous are in areas with swamps.

5

As noted above, “bayou” is largely restricted to the Gulf Coast in or near Louisiana.

My impression is that the terminology is pretty much scattergun, depending on what somebody named it originally and whether that name “stuck.”

However, I offer the following generalization:

A river is generally larger and longer than a creek, and nearly always it is always water-bearing, where in more arid or seasonal climates, a creek may be dry during the dry season or except during spring runoff from snowmelt.

A stream, when used as a part of a proper noun, is smaller and shorter than a creek. It is, of course, a generalized usage for any flowing body of water as a common noun as well. But Green River is probably larger than Rocky Creek, which is probably larger than South Stream.

In North Carolina, contrary to much of the rest of the nation, a “swamp” is a linear, flowing body of water with wetland growth in and alongside it. (In most places, AFAICT, it’s a standing body of water with wetland growth in it.)

A bayou, where it’s used, seems to be generally descriptive of an open, gently flowing body of water that empties directly into the ocean, or into another bayou which complies with the main definition. A bayou will never have rapids or whitewater, and is usually larger than a creek where both terms are used in the same area.

A branch, normally a Southern usage as a separate name (“Piney Branch” as opposed to “North/South/East/Branch of X River/Creek”), is a tributary of another stream.

These terms are not particularly consistently used, but those seem to be useful generalizations about them.

6

According to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate there isn’t any difference.

I’ve also heard a cut-off loop of a meandering river (see a city map of Omaha, NE and Carter Lake Iowa for an example) called a “bayou.”

7

Also called an oxbow lake.

8

Most of what we call bayous don’t originate too far from where they empty into the Gulf. Some rivers traverse far more territory.

Nevertheless, I still think it probable that who was doing the naming had more to do with it than anything else.

9

I guess it didn’t help me that Magic The Gathering’s black and green mana source card is called “bayou”. Since the black mana source is called “swamp” WOTC’s definition seemed to jive with mine.

So it seems to me that there is little consensus about what we think a bayou is. We have several definitions just in this one thread: creek, swamp, oxbow lake, empties into ocean. As happens on occasion, the dictionary doesn’t conform to popular opinion.

BTW, a lot of the “bayous” (and creeks) here in Houston (And Louisiana - in fact all of the southern states of the US) do not empty into an ocean. Well, actually NONE of them empty into an ocean. The ocean is over 1000 miles away! Some MIGHT empty into the Gulf of Mexico, but most empty into a lake or the ship channel before they the water goes to the Gulf.

10

A creek (in GB) was originally an inlet or estuary. It was not flowing fresh water, but rather salt water affected by tides. (First cite, 1250).

When the British came to the new world, they used that name in the same context. Thus, where I grew up (the oldest English settlement in New York State), there is Jockey Creek, Town Creek, and Goose Creek, all estuaries.

Later, the term attached itself to freshwater streams. The OED says of the origin:

Now in the US, a creek is usually a stream and a fairly small one, though Schoharie Creek in upstate NY would probably be classed as a river.

11

I would guess it’s originaly a native american word, since it’s not used at all in France (except when refering to Louisiana). According to my (french) dictionnary, “bayou” is the name ** given in Louisiana ** to shallow and stagnant waters or to a river’s dead branch.

12

From Dictionary dot com:

[Louisiana French bayouque, bayou, possibly from Choctaw bayuk.]