beachcomber

See also: Beachcomber

English

Alternative forms

• beach-comber

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg-der.

Proto-Germanic *bakiz

Proto-West Germanic *baki

Old English bæċ

Middle English bache

English beach

English comber

English beachcomber

From beach + comber.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbit͡ʃˌkoʊmɚ/

Noun

beachcomber (plural beachcombers)

1. (nautical) A seaman who is not prepared to work but hangs around port areas living off the charity of others.
   • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 46”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

     The society of beach-combers always repays the small pains you need be at to enjoy it. They are easy of approach and affable in conversation.

2. Any loafer around a waterfront.
3. A person who collects marine salvage at the coast.
   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 35:

     Now and again a wreck was to be seen, or a vessel left lonely and sad on a reef, her rigging dismantled and only waiting for beachcombers to come and break her up for the sake of her timber and old iron.

4. A long rolling wave of the sea.

Descendants

• → Dutch: bietser (“scrounger”)

Translations

seaman who hangs around port areas living off the charity of others

• French: batteur de grève m
• German: Strandräuber m

loafer around a waterfront

• Finnish: rantapummi
• German: Strandfaulenzer m
• Manx: ronseyder traie m

person who collectes marine salvage at the coast

• Dutch: strandjutter (nl) m

Further reading

• “beachcomber”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.