Day 24 and we’ve reached the final window of this year’s Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar! Today’s word is: 🌊 tide — the rising and falling of the sea twice each lunar day A Common Germanic inheritance concerned with time; cognate with German "Zeit", Dutch "tijd", Norwegian/Danish "tid". 1/3

Day 23 and we've reached penultimate window of this year’s Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar! Today’s word is: 🌊 strand — 'the land bordering a sea, a shore or beach' Common to Germanic, strand being the default ‘beach’ word in Dutch, German, Danish and Norwegian.

Day 22 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 eddy — water that runs contrary to the direction of the tide or current, a small whirlpool "Those great eddees...that suck into them and overwhelm whatever comes within their reach" (T. Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth, 1684)

🎄Some seasonal reading from me: 🌊 On carols, sailors, Saint Nicholas and Christmas on the sea

A small piece of sea off Hoy

Day 21 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: bight — 'a bend in a coastline, a shallow bay' Common to Germanic, cognate with Dutch bocht, German Bucht. As in German Bight from the Shipping Forecast: "There are warnings of gales in Forth, Tyne, Dogger, Fisher, German Bight…"

Only 4 days left to go in this year’s Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar — reflections on a different coastal word each day, gradually building up a ‘coastal lexicon’ as we get nearer to Christmas🎄 🌊You can catch up on Days 1-20 in the post below — many thanks to everyone who has got involved so far!

Day 20 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 fog dog — a break or clear patch in a fog at sea "These transient breaks, which are called by the sailors ‘Fog dogs’...are generally considered good" (Athenæum, 2 April 1831) 📸 Sea, gulls and fog, neekoh.fi (CC BY 2.0)

Day 19 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 geo — a rocky gully on the coast in Caithness, Orkney and Shetland A Norse borrowing < gjá 'rift, cleft, chasm', as in the Faroese village Gjógv Formed by high-energy wave erosion along a line of structural weakness in the rock

Day 18 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 cuddy duck — a local name in NE England for the Common Eider, a large seaduck found along northern coastlines Named after St Cuthbert, the 7th-century Northumbrian saint traditionally associated with various bird-related miracles

Day 17 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 shingle — smooth, waterworn pebbles as found on the seashore Origin unclear, perhaps imitative of the sound of water running over such pebbles. As in various coastal place names, notably the Suffolk village of Shingle Street.

Day 16 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 lee — the sheltered side of a ship, turned away from the wind Whence leeway — ‘the sideways drift of a ship leeward of the desired course’, and also figuratively — ‘scope for freedom of action or thought’ 📸 Dguendel (CC BY 3.0)

Caedmon’s Cross, erected in honour of the earliest English poet whose name is known, in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church in Whitby in 1898. Cædmon (657–684) cared for the animals at the double monastery of Streonæshalch (now known as Whitby Abbey) during the abbacy of St. Hilda (657–680).

Low winter sunshine strikes Village Bay #advent #NTS #StKilda

Day 15 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 whorl — each turn or coil of a spiral shell "See what a lovely shell...With delicate spire and whorl" (Tennyson, 1855) The European Ribbed Wentletrap below takes its name from the Dutch word wenteltrap — ‘spiral staircase’.

Day 14 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 wash — a tract of land “washed” regularly by the sea As in The Wash, where King John was caught out in 1216: "half my power this night...are taken by the tide; These Lincoln Washes have devoured them" (Shakespeare, King John)

Day 13 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 selkie — a seal, or in folklore a spirit which can shapeshift between human and seal form "I am a man upon the land and I am a silkie in the sea" (Ballad The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry) 📸 Baron Reznik (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 cropped)

This is cool. The three norths (True, Grid, Magnetic) met in Dorset in November 2022, worked their way northwards in tandem, and are now about to leave England and go hand in hand into the North Sea. www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/news/three-n...

Day 12 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 wrack — remnants or goods from a wrecked vessel, esp. when driven ashore Borrowed from Dutch/Low German, as in Du. "scheepswrak" ‘shipwreck’ "As rich…As is the ooze and bottom of the sea With sunken wrack" (Shakespeare, Henry V)

Day 11 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 neap (tide) — occurring at the 1st & 3rd quarters of the moon, when the high-water level is lowest "Such a dead Neipe...as no Man living was known to have seen the like, the Sea fell so far back from the Land" (H. Spelman, 1698)

Aerial view of Sidestrand on the north Norfolk coast, with St Michael & All Angels Church & village set perilously close to the crumbling soft cliffs. Waves, groynes & a narrow shingle beach below show how hard it is to hold back the North Sea #Sidestrand #aerial #image #Norfolk

A remarkable story - a woman was drowning in the North Sea off the Hague. A police helicopter saw her but was not equipped with a winch or any rescue equipment. So a crew member jumped from the helicopter into the sea and saved her life. www.ad.nl/112-nieuws-d...

Can't get out this lunchtime? Take a stroll with Simon Armitage from Ravenscar, through Boggle Hole and on to Robin Hood's Bay. We did this exact walk in August, sat on the bench, saw the peacocks, had tea. Watch on iPlayer.

Day 10 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 staithe — ‘a landing-stage, wharf’ A Norse borrowing, found especially in eastern England. Whence the name of the Yorkshire village of Staithes, where Capt. James Cook once worked as a shopkeeper’s apprentice. 📸T Eyre, Staithes

Two for #TombTuesday Holm of Papay South - Chambered cairn as seen by the birds of Winter and the birds of Summer. (Holmie sheep in formation. #Papay #Orkney #neolithic

Day 9 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 tang — a collective name for large, coarse seaweed growing above the low-water mark As in the Tangie in Orkney & Shetland, a horse/man sea-spirit covered with seaweed, which haunts the seashore. 📸 Ryan Hodnett (CC BY-SA 4.0)

9 Dec 1585: Robert Dudley Earl of #Leicester crosses to Flushing [Vlissingen] #otd which leads to his accepting the Governor-Generalship of the #Netherlands on 15 Jan 1586 (English Heritage Kenilworth) Made Elizabeth very cross!

Day 8 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 shoal — ‘a place where the water is of little depth; a shallow, sandbank or bar’ Prized for fishing, though also feared: "When shauldes and sandie bankes apears What pillot can direct his course?" (c.1585, Early Naval Ballads)

The Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede c. 1670, by Jacob van Ruisdael, preeminent Dutch Golden Age landscape artist (1628-1682); master of dramatic river and coastal views, with large skies and brooding clouds; inspired Constable, Turner and Van Gogh. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Day 7 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 skerry — a rocky islet covered by the sea at high water or in stormy weather Perilous for mariners, as captured in the Norse saying "sigla milli skers ok báru" — 'to sail between skerry and wave‘ i.e. be in a difficult situation

St Nicholas, Harwich, on his feast, seen from the sea. He was a popular dedication for medieval urban ports. In East Anglia alone Kings Lynn, Ipswich, Dunwich, Yarmouth, Salthouse, Wells and Blakeney also had churches dedicated to him, and there were chapels at Lowestoft, Southwold and Aldeburgh.

Day 6 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 links — gently undulating, grass-covered ground near the shore, esp. along Scotland's east coast Traditionally common ground, hosting fairs, gatherings, livestock grazing, archery, and of course: golf! 📸 Iain Lowe (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The oldest surviving full deck of cards, known as the 'Flemish Hunting Deck' or 'Cloisters Deck', made ca. 1475-80 in the County of Flanders or the Duchy of Brabant (@metmuseum)

Day 5 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 the offing — the distant part of the sea visible from shore, where approaching ships would first appear Whence in the offing — ‘nearby’, ‘at hand’, ‘imminent’ Photo: Rain in the offing, Dornoch, Julian Paren (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Day 4 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 voe — ‘a bay, creek or inlet’ A Norse borrowing in Orkney & Shetland dialect, found in place names across the Northern Isles — including Hamnavoe, the old name for Stromness. 📸 Stromness waterfront, Mike Pennington (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Snooze time for these Bar-tailed Godwits at Seaton Point, #Northumberland. #nebirding #birdsoftheworld @webs-gsmp.bsky.social @wadertales.bsky.social

Larkin's poem 'Here' talks of Hull's 'barge-crowded water'. To give an idea of what that meant, here's Neil Holmes' view up the River Hull as recently as 1984, the year before Larkin's death. The lower photo is my shot of the same view in 2024, just 40 years later.

The Dutch traded live eels to London starting in the mid-15th C., & quickly won a monopoly on eel sales in the city. How do we know? Well...by the 16th C., English regulations started calling ALL eel sellers in the city "palingmen" from the Dutch word for eel: paling. 1/2 🗃️🧪

Day 3 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 haar — ‘a cold sea-fog’ Found especially along the east coast of Scotland and England, alongside "sea-fret", "sea-roke". Photo: Sea fret, St Mary's Lighthouse, Whitley Bay, hayley green (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Day 2 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: 🌊 marram — as in the "marram grass" which thrives in coastal dunes A Scandinavian loan (< marr ‘sea’ + hálmr ‘straw/reed’), known as "marehalm" along Norwegian and Danish coasts. Photo: Marram grass, Alan Hughes (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Day 1 of the Coastal Lexicon Advent Calendar and today’s word is: fleet — ‘an arm of the sea, inlet, run of water’ Found especially in the North Kent Marshes and also in the Low Countries as its Dutch cognate: vliet Photo: Capel Fleet from Capel Gate, Isle of Sheppey, Penny Mayes (CC BY-SA 2.0)

"While established systems safeguard journal articles, books, and research data, no comparable infrastructures exist for scholarly blogs. As a result, an essential part of academic communication risks slipping out of the historical record..." The case for preserving scholarly blogs 👇

Dunwich was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as having a population of 484 households 😲. Ipswich, by comparison, only had 322. #Ozymandias

November's North Sea dispatches from me

fen-līc, adj: fenlike, marshy. (FEN-leech / ˈfɛn-liːtʃ) #OldEnglish #WOTD

27 Nov 1703 (O.S.) // The Great Storm of 1703 swept across southern England from the Bristol Channel to the Thames Estuary during the night of 26/27 November. Damage was widespread and many ships were lost, wrecked, and sunk, including the following 13 vessels of the #RoyalNavy. [1/9]

Brancaster #Norfolk Galleon weather-vane. #IronworkThursday

Way out over Norfolk - looking east towards Scolt Head Island & out across the North Sea. The Titchwell Marsh Nature Reserve is directly below. #Norfolk #coast #aerial #image #Coast

Map of the day: Germany’s river basins, including the Rhine (gold), Danube (green) and Elbe (purple)