sargasso

Meaning

Noun

• A brown alga, of the genus Sargassum, that forms large, floating masses.
• Also Sargasso: a confused, tangled mass or situation.
• A part of an ocean or sea characterized by floating masses of sargassos, like the Sargasso Sea.

Origin

• From Portuguese sargaço, from Latin salicastrum, from salix + -astrum. Salix is derived from Proto-Indo-European *sl̥H-ik-. The English word is cognate with French sargasse, Spanish sargazo.
• The capitalized form of sense 2 (“a confused, tangled mass or situation”), Sargasso, is probably a reference to the Sargasso Sea.