Etymology

beach

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Today it means: The shore of a body of water, especially when sandy or pebbly. Full definition →

Middle English bache ← Old English bæċ ← Proto-West Germanic *baki
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beach · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*bʰeg-
  2. Proto-Germanic*bakiz
  3. Proto-West Germanic*baki
  4. Old Englishbæċ
  5. Middle Englishbache
  6. English todaybeach

From Middle English bache, bæcche (“bank, sandbank”), from Old English beċe (“beck, brook, stream”), from Proto-West Germanic *baki, from Proto-Germanic *bakiz (“brook”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“flowing water”). Cognates Cognate with Cimbrian pach (“brook, creek, stream”), Dutch beek (“brook, stream”), German Bach (“brook, stream”), German Low German Beek (“brook, stream”), Luxembourgish Baach (“brook, stream”), Mòcheno pòch (“brook, creek, stream”), Vilamovian bāh, baoch (“brook, stream”), Danish bæk (“brook”), Icelandic bekkur (“creek, spring, stream”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk bekk (“brook, creek, stream”), Swedish bäck (“brook, creek, stream”); also Lithuanian banga (“billow, wave”). More at batch, beck.

Beach · proper noun2

English surname reflecting multiple origins, including the nouns beach and beech, and Americanized from the German surname Bisch.

Words from the same roots

Old Englishbeċe all →

beechBeckwith

Proto-Germanic*bakiz all →

beck

Proto-Indo-European*bʰeg- all →

backbankbenchbicker

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.