beach | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

27 entries found.

"to haul or run up on a beach," 1814, from beach (n.). Related: Beached; beaching.

1530s, "loose, water-worn pebbles of the seashore," probably from a dialectal survival of Old English bece, bece "stream," from Proto-Germanic *bakiz. Extended to loose, pebbly shores (1590s), and in dialect around Sussex and Kent beach still has the meaning "pebbles worn by the waves." French grève shows the same evolution. Beach ball first recorded 1940; beach bum first recorded 1950.

beach-head (n.)

also beachhead, 1940, in reference to German military tactics in World War II, from beach (n.) + head (n.), on the model of bridgehead, but the image doesn't quite work.

beach-comber (n.)

1840 [Dana, "Two Years Before the Mast"], from beach (n.) + agent noun from comb (v.). Defined in "Century Dictionary" [1900] as "A seafaring man generally, of vagrant and drunken habits, who idles about the wharves of seaports; used most frequently in countries bordering on the Pacific ocean."

beachfront (adj.)

also beach-front, 1903, American English, from beach (n.) + front (n.). The beach front was a standard way in late 19c. to express "the seashore of a town" such as Atlantic City.

Pismo Beach

place in California; according to Bright, the name is Obsipeño (Chumashan) /pismu'/ "tar, asphalt," literally "the dark stuff," from /piso'/ "to be black, dark."

boom (n.2)

"loud, deep, hollow, continued sound," c. 1500, from boom (v.). Compare boondi Aboriginal word for waves breaking on a beach (source of Sydney's Bondi Beach), said to be imitative of the sound.

strand (n.1)

"shore, beach," Old English strand "sea-shore," from Proto-Germanic *strandaz (source also of Danish and Swedish strand "beach, shore, strand," Old Norse strönd "border, edge, shore," Old Frisian strond, Middle Dutch strant, Dutch strand, Middle Low German strant, German Strand "beach"), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from PIE root *ster- "to stretch out." Strictly, the part of a shore that lies between the tide-marks. Formerly also used of river banks, hence the London street name (1246).

sand-castle (n.)

"sand piled up and shaped to resemble a little castle," such as children make at the beach, 1838, from sand (n.) + castle (n.). Also figurative of impermanence.

airhead (n.)

"empty-headed person," 1972, from air (n.1) + head (n.). Earlier as a term in mining (mid-19c.) and as a military term (1950) based on beach-head.

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