seashore

Etymology

It is a compound from English sea + shore, also hyphenated.^[2][3][4] Sea is from Old English sǣ,^[3] and shore is from scora or from Middle Low German schor or Middle Dutch scorre.^[3] Old English had other words for the seashore, such as sǣrima and sǣstrand,^[3][5] and Middle English had sea bank from the mid-14th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The coast of the sea, the land lying beside it: 1526, in Tyndale's translation of the New Testament (Hebrews 11:12).^[2][6] Etymonline gives the 1520s, and Random House 1520–30.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Besides the land along the sea in general, the word is used in a narrower sense for the strip actually washed by the tide, between the ordinary high-water and low-water marks, usually covered with sand or shingle.^[2][3][6] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "the coast of the sea", quoting Dryden.^[7]

Timeline

• 1526 – the coast of the sea, or the ground washed by the sea between the tide marks.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The land beside the sea; the coast: They spent the afternoon walking along the seashore.^[8][6][9]
2. The ground between the ordinary high-water and low-water marks; the foreshore.^[8][6][9]

Related words

• sea
• shore
• seaside
• seacoast
• foreshore

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin