Flow, Flushing Time, Foam, Foreland: Word Origins, Descriptions of Coastal Features, Processes

In the current alphabetic series of word origins and physical descriptions of coastal features and processes, here are flow, flushing time, foam, foamer, foam line, following wind, and foreland.

Flow (1)
The familiar noun flow, with the basic meaning of uninterrupted movement, derives from the verb flow, which goes back to Old English flowan. The word is akin to Old High German flouwen ("to wash, rinse").

Flow is synonymous with some senses of flood, including the regular inflowing of tidal waters toward the shore.

Flow (2)
Another flow is a chiefly Scottish word of Scandinavian origin. The word is akin to Old Norse floi ("wide mouth of a river, swampy place") and Danish flo ("marsh"), which are derivatives from the root of Old Norse floa ("to flow").

This flow denotes either a swamp or an arm or basin of a sea. It is used mainly in place-names, such as Scapa Flow, a sea basin in the Orkney Islands, off the northern coast of Scotland.

Flushing Time
Flushing time is the time necessary for currents and tides to replace (flush out) all the water in an estuary, harbor, or other coastal body of water.

Foam
Modern English foam comes from Middle English fome, from Old English fam. The word is akin to Old High German feim ("foam") and Latin spuma ("foam").

The light, frothy mass of fine bubbles formed in or on the surface of the ocean by agitation, as by waves, is foam.

Foamer
On a shore, a foamer is a wave crashing, thus creating foam.

Foam Line
After a wave breaks in its movement toward a shore, the front of the wave is typically marked by a frothy streak called a foam line. The term also applies to any similar formation, such as a line of foam around the head of a rip current.

Following Wind
A following wind is a wind blowing in the same direction as the movement of the waves.

Foreland
Foreland is a combination of the prefix fore- ("situated in the front") and the noun land.

On a coast, the word foreland denotes either of two important features: a promontory, that is, a high point of land projecting into a body of water; or, on the outside, or seaward side, of an artificial embankment or seawall, a part of the natural shore that receives the shock of waves and helps to deaden their impact on the rest of the shore.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica Ready Reference 2004. CD-ROM. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2006.

Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. 3rd ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2007.

The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1989.