Impermeable Groin, Incident Wave, Inlet, Inshore, Intertidal: 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 impermeable groin, incident wave, infragravity waves, inlet, inlet gorge, inshore, inshore current, and intertidal.

Impermeable Groin
The adjective impermeable comes from Late Latin impermeabilis, from Latin in- ("not") and Late Latin permeabilis ("permeable, penetrable"), which goes back to Latin permeare ("to pass through"), from per- ("through") and meare ("to go, pass").

Impermeable means not permitting passage. A groin is a rigid structure built out from a shore to protect the shore. An impermeable groin is a solid or nearly solid groin through which sand, in particular, cannot pass.

Incident Wave
An incident wave is a wave moving toward a shore.

Infragravity Waves
Infragravity waves are long waves, that is, waves with 30-second or longer periods (times between consecutive wave crests passing a given point). They are usually generated by wave groups breaking in the surf zone.

Inlet
The word inlet derives from the fact that the natural feature so named lets in water. Three coastal uses of the word are common: a waterway running into the sea; any bay or recess in a seashore; and a narrow passage between peninsulas or through islands leading to a lagoon or other coastal body of water.

Inlet Gorge
Modern English gorge comes from Middle English gorge, from Middle French gorge, from Late Latin gurga, an alteration of gurges, from Latin gurges ("whirlpool, throat").

Two of the basic meanings of gorge are throat and belly. From those senses comes the coastal use of the word in the term inlet gorge, which usually refers to the deepest part of an inlet.

Inshore
Inshore derives from the phrase in shore. As an adjective, the word means situated near, carried on near, or moving toward, a shore. As a noun, inshore broadly denotes the shore area where the seabed interacts with the water to transform waves.

Inshore Current
An ocean current that flows toward land into the zone of breaking waves is called an inshore current.

Intertidal
Intertidal is a combination of inter- ("located between") and tidal ("pertaining to tides"). The word is most commonly used as an adjective meaning of, relating to, or being, the part of the shore between the low-tide mark and the high-tide mark. Sometimes intertidal is used as a noun denoting the intertidal zone.
________________________________

Barnes-Svarney, Patricia, ed. dir. The New York Public Library Science Desk Reference. New York: Stonesong Press-Macmillan, 1995.

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.