ashore

Pronunciation

• UK: /əˈʃɔː/^[1]
• US: /əˈʃɔɹ/^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English a- (“on”) + shore (“land at the edge of the sea”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} on the model of the earlier aland, according to Hoad.^[7] Skeat and Weekley explain it as standing for “on shore”,^[8][9] and Weekley notes that the usual Elizabethan word was still aland.^[9] The noun comes from Old English scora or Middle Low German schor (“shore, coast, headland”), according to Etymonline,^[4] while Hoad gives schōre or Middle Dutch schōre.^[7] Middle English had an adverb ashore meaning "aslant", probably from a phrase meaning "on props", which has a separate source in the prop sense of the noun.^[10][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To the shore, onto land: Merriam-Webster dates its first known use to about 1536,^[5] while the OED's first record is from 1586, in Thomas Bowes's translation of La Primaudaye's French Academy.^[2] Etymonline gives the 1580s,^[4] and Dictionary.com 1580–90.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The sense of motion, "to land", came first; the sense of position, "on land", is recorded from 1631, in Thomas Heywood's Fair Maid of the West.^[2][4][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "on shore; on the land", with a quotation from Raleigh.^[12] In sailors' usage it also meant aground, and to go ashore was to leave a boat, the opposite of going aboard.^[13] In Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire dialect, a door left ashore was ajar, from shore in the sense of a prop,^[14] and in Lincolnshire to be clean run ashore was to be at the last pinch.^[14] The unrelated Middle English adverb meaning "aslant" is recorded from before 1475, in John Russell's Book of Nurture.^[10]

Timeline

• before 1475 – Middle English ashore, aslant (a separate formation).^[10][4]
• c. 1536 – first known use, according to Merriam-Webster.^[5]
• 1586 – to the shore, to land.^[2]
• 1631 – on shore, on land.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Toward or onto the shore or land from the water: The survivors swam ashore at dawn.^{[15][5][16][2]}
2. On land rather than at sea; also used after a noun as an adjective: The crew had three days ashore.^{[15][16][2][3]}

Related words

• aland
• aboard

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Smyth, W. H. (1867), The Sailor's Word-Book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, London: Blackie and Son
14. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt