moorlogn.
/ˈmʊəlɒɡ/, /ˈmɔːlɒɡ/, U.S. /ˈmʊrˌlɔɡ/, /ˈmʊrˌlɑɡ/ A woody layer or mass of peat or other decomposed vegetable matter found below the surface of a marsh, fen, etc.
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the world > the earth > structure of the earth > structural features > sedimentary formation > [noun] > stratum > stratum by constitution > organic remains or fossils
moorlog1655
coal plant1695
leaf bed1697
plant bed1784
oyster bed1833
stem-bed1853
forest-bed1861
starfish bed1861
fish-bed1869
insect-bed1893
lagerstätte1972
1655 R. Child in S. Hartlib Legacy (ed. 3) 141 This is in briefe my Philosophy concerning Moorlog.
1721 J. Perry Acct. Stopping Daggenham Breach 72 (note) Moorlogg, is a vein of divers sorts of rotten Wood..which lyes about 3 Foot and a half..underneath the Surface of the Marsh Ground.
1840 Civil Engineer & Architect's Jrnl. 3 106/1 Moorlogg is described as a vein of matted brushwood, with nuts and pieces of rotten wood interspersed.
1933 Antiquity 7 38 In the summer of 1932 the skipper of the steam drifter Colinda procured another bone harpoon of Maglemose type in a sample of ‘moorlog’ (peat) brought up by the trawl.
1939 G. Clark Archaeol. & Society ii. 20 Over many parts of the North Sea bed..fishermen have found the remains of a great freshwater fen in the form of lumps of ‘moor log’.
1975 J. G. Evans Environment Early Man Brit. Isles iv. 86 A dramatic discovery..was a lump of moorlog..found to contain a mesolithic barbed point of bone.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1655