Revised as of
8 Jan 2024
I gotta tell ya, no one is ever going to go down to the beech and lie in the sand.
Okay, I’m lying. It is possible that someone made a chaise lounge out of beech and put it on the beach, but that’s the closest this character is ever going to come in adhering to the writer’s scene.
Exploring Later . . .
You may want to explore “Beach vs Coast vs Shore“.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Beach | Beech |
|---|---|
Honokowai Beach Park by Kirt Edblom is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Flickr. |
Layered Beech Tree at Kilravock Castle by Ann Harrison is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, courtesy of Geograph.org.uk, via Wikimedia Commons. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Noun; Verb, intransitive & transitive
Plural for the noun: beaches Third person present verb: beaches |
Noun
Plural: beeches |
| Noun: A pebbly or sandy shore, especially by the ocean between high- and low-water marks Verb, intransitive:
Verb, transitive:
To make inoperative or unemployed |
[Also beech tree, beechwood] A large tree with smooth gray bark, glossy leaves, and hard, pale, fine-grained timber |
| Examples: | |
| Noun: Hey, let’s go to the beach. Mary went down to the beach. They’re building sand castles on the beach. We have a place at the beach. Verb, intransitive: Whales are beaching in the storm. We don’t know what causes whales to beach. At the water’s edge a rowboat was beached. Verb, transitive: We beached the ship to save it. He has certainly beached Smith on the trade union question. A change in literary fashion left him beached with the wreckage of the realistic novel. Competitive procurement seems to have beached several companies. |
The fruit of the beech, the beechnut, is an important food for numerous wild birds and mammals.
The American beech, Fagus grandifolia, and the European beech, F. sylvatica, are the most common. Nestled amid those trails and orange red maples, oaks, beeches, and birches was the Lost River. Oaks, sycamores, and beeches dotted well-tended lawns bordered by tarmacked paths and signposted at every junction. We would like to buy a piece of forest in White Carpathian Mountains, consisting mainly of spruce, beeches, and firs. He made the tabletop out of beech. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: beached, beachier, beachiest, beachless, beachy, unbeached Noun: beachcomber, beachfront, beachgoer, beachhead, beachiness, beachside, beachwear |
Adjective: beechen, beechy Noun: beechmast, beechnut |
| History of the Word: | |
| Mid-16th century, denoting shingle on the seashore, is perhaps related to the Old English bæce, bece meaning brook (an element that survives in place names such as Wisbech and Sandbach), assuming an intermediate sense of pebbly river valley. | Old English bēce is of Germanic origin and related to the Latin fagus meaning ,beech, the Greek phagos meaning edible oak. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Beach versus Beech
Apple Dictionary.com
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Beach by the Sea Repose by Michaela Laube is under the CC0 license, via Pexels. Autumn Beech Tree by Helmut H. Kroiss is under the Pixabay License, via Pixabay.
