littoral
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Late Latin littoralis, from litoris (genitive of litus). The doubled 't' is a late medieval addition, and the more classical litoral is also sometimes found.
Cognate to French littoral, Spanish litoral, and more distantly to English lido (“outdoor pool”), via Italian lido (“beach, shore”).
Usage notes
Specifically refers to the water at the shore, rather than the land, particularly in the phrase littoral zone.
Quotations
"During his tenure, 'From the Sea' became the Navy-Marine Corps joint strategic concept, wherein the Navy and Marine Corps reoriented doctrinal focus toward littoral warfare." ― Semper Fidelis Memorandum for Retired Marines, Volume 58, No. 2
Synonyms
- (relating to the seashore): intertidal
Coordinate terms
Translations
Noun
littoral (plural littorals)
- A shore
- 1921, Sir Charles Eliot
- ...these Chams belonged to the Malay-Polynesian group and their distribution along the littoral suggests that they were invaders from the sea...
- 1921, Sir Charles Eliot
- The zone of a coast between high tide and low tide levels.
- 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 6, in The Dust of Conflict:
- The night was considerably clearer than anybody on board her desired when the schooner Ventura headed for the land. It rose in places, black and sharp against the velvety indigo, over her dipping bow, though most of the low littoral was wrapped in obscurity.
- 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion:
- Buried within the Mediterranean littoral are some seventy to ninety million tons of slag from ancient smelting, about a third of it concentrated in Iberia. This ceaseless industrial fueling caused the deforestation of an estimated fifty to seventy million acres of woodlands.
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Synonyms
- (zone between high- and low-tide): intertidal zone, foreshore, littoral range
Derived terms
Related terms
French
Etymology
From Latin littoralis, from litoris (genitive of litus).
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Adjective
littoral (feminine singular littorale, masculine plural littoraux, feminine plural littorales)
Further reading
- “littoral” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).