loblolly

lob·lol·ly  (lbll)

n. pl. lob·lol·lies

1. Chiefly Southern U.S. A mudhole; a mire.

2. The loblolly pine.

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[Perhaps dialectal lob, to bubble + lolly, broth.]

Regional Note: Loblolly is a combination of lob, probably an onomatopoeia for the thick heavy bubbling of cooking porridge, and lolly, an old British dialect word for "broth, soup, or any other food boiled in a pot." Thus, loblolly originally denoted thick porridge or gruel, especially that eaten by sailors onboard ship. In the southern United States, the word is used to mean "a mudhole; a mire," a sense derived from an allusion to the consistency of porridge. The name loblolly has become associated with several varieties of trees as well, all of which favor wet bottomlands or swamps in the Gulf and South Atlantic states.

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loblolly [ˈlɒbˌlɒlɪ]

n pl -lies

1. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Plants) a southern US pine tree, Pinus taeda, with bright red-brown bark, green needle-like leaves, and reddish-brown cones

2. (Transport / Nautical Terms) Nautical a thick gruel

3. (Earth Sciences / Physical Geography) US dialect a mire; mudhole

[perhaps from dialect lob to boil + obsolete dialect lolly thick soup]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

loblolly - thick gruel gruel - a thin porridge (usually oatmeal or cornmeal)