seaweed

Etymology

It is a compound from English sea + weed.^[2][3][4][5] Before it, Old English had flēotwyrt, "float-wort", glossed as seaweed,^[3][6] and Middle English had sechaf, "sea-chaff".^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Marine plants of the algae, taken collectively: 1577, in Barnabe Googe's translation of Heresbach's Four Books of Husbandry.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The word was first used of sea plants in the mass; from before 1684, in John Evelyn's diary, it is also used of a particular alga.^[2] Collins and Merriam-Webster also apply it to other plants growing in or near the sea.^[8][7] The Shorter Oxford records seaweed marquetry, inlay with a pattern resembling seaweed.^[4]

Timeline

• 1577 – marine algae collectively.^[2][7]
• before 1684 – a particular marine alga.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of many large marine algae, such as kelp, that grow on the shore or in the sea, often anchored to rocks: Seaweed littered the beach after the storm.^[8][7][2]
2. Any other plant growing in or close to the sea.^[8][7]

Related words

• sea
• weed
• alga

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins