Schlamm

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of sticky, muddy substance often found in wet areas or as sediment in bodies of water
2. material produced by the decomposition of organic matter in bogs or marshes
3. a viscous mixture of clay and water known for its unpleasant and heavy texture

Etymology: Schlamm is a homegrown German word, not a borrowing from Latin or Greek. It descends from a Germanic root that also gave Dutch and other West Germanic languages their words for sludge and wet silt. Its forms in Middle High German, such as "slam," show the same basic sound and sense, so the word has been describing wet, clinging ground for well over a thousand years. Its look-alike in English, "slam," is a different word. That verb is generally traced to an imitative, sound-based origin and has no shared ancestry with the German noun, so the resemblance is coincidental. The English word "slime," which means something similarly slippery and viscous, is a closer relative in sense, though its link to the German word is not a straightforward one.

Synonyms: mud, slush