Word Origins of Barrier, Barrier Beach, Barrier Island, Barrier Reef - Coastal Features and Processes

In the current alphabetic series of terms relating to coastal features and processes, here are barrier, barrier bar, barrier beach, barrier island, barrier reef, and offshore bar.

Barrier
Modern English barrier comes from Middle English barrere, from Middle French barriere, from barre ("bar").

A barrier, in general, is something that blocks a passage. Any natural formation that prevents or hinders movement may be termed a barrier.

Among coastal features, the word barrier denotes a long, sandy, relatively narrow island that lies parallel to a shore and has been built up by the action of waves, currents, and wind. The feature is so named because it hinders the movement of the ocean toward the shore.

Such an island is also called a barrier beach or, less frequently, a barrier bar or offshore bar.

Famous examples of barrier beaches lie along the coasts of the British Virgin Islands, in the eastern Caribbean Sea.

Barrier Island
An exceptionally broad barrier, or barrier beach, is called a barrier island. Its size helps protect the nearby mainland shore from the erosive effects of the ocean.

A famous example of barrier islands is the string of such islands lying off the coast of southern Texas and sheltering the long Laguna Madre inlet from the Gulf of Mexico. One of those islands is Padre Island, which is 113 miles long and up to 3 miles wide.

Another chain of barrier islands is the Outer Banks, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of North Carolina. The chain is about 175 miles long, and most of the islands, which range from a few feet to more than 100 feet in height, are connected by road. The islands have several historical places, such as Roanoke Island, site of the first English settlement in North America (1585), and the village of Kitty Hawk, near which the Wright brothers made their first powered flight (1903).

Barrier Reef
A barrier reef is a more specific kind of barrier: a coral reef approximately parallel to a coast and separated from it by a lagoon or a channel. Barrier reefs may lie a mile or more offshore.

The most famous example of a barrier reef is the Great Barrier Reef, off the northeastern coast of Queensland, Australia. It contains the largest deposit of coral in the world and extends for more than 1,250 miles along the Australian coast. The northern end is close to the shore, but the southern end lies about 150 miles out to sea. The reef was formed over millions of years by the accumulation of skeletons from living coral.
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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.