Word for 'prairie'?

[Alan Hartley]

Here's the first portion of the OED entry for PRAIRIE, followed by
MEADOW. It surpised me to see how late prairie entered English from
Canadian French. (The ante 1682 quot. cites it as a French word, so 1773
is OED's earliest English example.) The 'great plain' sense of the word
is definitely secondary (19c).

A tract of level or undulating grass-land, without trees, and usually of
great extent; applied chiefly to the grassy plains of North America; a
savannah, a steppe. Also (U.S. local), a marsh, a swampy pond or lake.
   (In salt or soda prairie, extended to a level barren tract covered
with an efflorescence of natron or soda, as in New Mexico, etc.; in
trembling or shaking prairie, to quaking bog-land covered with thin
herbage, in Louisiana.)

   [a1682 SIR T. BROWNE Tracts (1684) 201 The Prerie or large Sea-meadow
upon the Coast of Provence.] 1773 P. KENNEDY Jrnl. in T. Hutchins Descr.
Virginia, etc. (1778) 54 The Prairie, or meadow ground on the eastern
side, is at least twenty miles wide. Ibid. 55 The lands are much the
same as before described, only the Prairies (Meadows) extend further
from the river. 1787 J. HARMAR in E. Denny Milit. Jrnl. (1860) 423 The
prairies are very extensive, natural meadows, covered with long
grass,..like the ocean, as far as the eye can see, the view is
terminated by the horizon. 1791 D. BRADLEY Jrnl. 19 Sept. (1935) 17 A
prairia of two or three hundred acres where the grass or wild oats is 8
or 10 feet high and very thick. Ibid. 12 Oct. 22 Struck a large prairia
in our coursefound it impassable. 1794 W. CLARK Jrnl. 1 Aug. in
Mississippi Valley Hist. Rev. (1914) I. 421 An open..Pararie..handsomly
interspersed with Small Copse of Trees. 1795 J. SMITH in Ohio Archaeol.
& Hist. Q. (1907) XVI. 380 We saw several pararas, as they are called.
They are large tracts of fine, rich land, without trees and producing as
fine grass as the best meadows. 1805 PIKE Sources Mississ. (1810) 7 Four
hundred yards in the rear, there is a small prairie of 8 or 10 acres,
which would be a convenient spot for gardens. 1806 New Eng. Republican
in Massachusetts Spy 16 July 1/5 A venerable Philosopher sitting in the
middle of an immense Map, marked with vast praires, huge rivers, and
mountains of salt. 1809 A. HENRY Trav. 264 The Plains, or, as the French
denominate them, the Prairies, or Meadows, compose an extensive tract of
country. 1815 SOUTHEY in Q. Rev. XII. 326 A large Oak tree stands alone
in a prairie... (Note. If this word be merely a French synonime for
savannah, which has long been naturalized, the Americans display little
taste in preferring it.) 1819 E. DANA Geogr. Sk. Western Country 37 The
ore is dug from an open praira. Ibid. 108 There are two kinds of praira,
the river and upland. 1834 D. CROCKETT Narr. Life xii. 85, I came to the
edge of an open parara, and looking on before my dogs, I saw in and
about the biggest bear that ever was seen in America. c1834 H. EVANS in
Chron. Oklahoma (1925) III. 181 We could look and behold..one continual
large expanse of Pararie.

And the definitions of MEADOW:

1. a. A piece of land permanently covered with grass to be mown for use
as hay; (gen.) a grassy field or other area of grassland, esp. one used
for pasture. Also (regional): a tract of low well-watered ground, esp.
near a river (cf. WATER-MEADOW n.).
    b. Land used as a meadow or meadows.
    c. Hay mown from a meadow.
2. Chiefly N. Amer. A tract of uncultivated grassland, esp. a low-level
one along a river or in a marshy region near the sea; (also) a tract of
uncultivated upland pasture.
3. a. N. Amer. (chiefly Newfoundland). An area of sea ice on which seals
haul out in large numbers.
    b. An area of sea rich in seaweed or small marine organisms, esp.
providing a feeding ground for whales or fish.