Meanings
plural pocosins · alternative pocoson · alternative pocosen · alternative poquoson
- USbiologyA low, wooded swamp in (especially coastal) Eastern Maryland, Virginia or the Carolinas; a palustrine wetland with deep, acidic peat soils.
One has to go down "on all fours" to get below the dense tangle of vegetation. Each step in the soft peat is uncertain. The reward is a pocosin community full of wildflowers.
2001, Richard Dwight Porcher, Douglas Alan Rayner, A Guide to the Wildflowers of South Carolina, University of South Carolina, page 95
Origin
From an unknown Algonquian word, sometimes suggested to be one meaning "opening out" (the widening of a river, related to Ojibwe baakisin (“it is left open”)), or "swamp on a hill". Alternatively, perhaps related to Abenaki pôgwaso (“very shallow”).
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
pocosin. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pocosin
“pocosin.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pocosin. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pocosin,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pocosin.
Source: pocosin on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.