Advertisement

littoral (adj.)

"pertaining to the seashore," 1650s, from Latin littoralis "of or belonging to the seashore," from litus (genitive litoris) "seashore, coast, seaside, beach, strand," from Proto-Italic *leitos, a word of unknown origin, possibly from PIE root *lei- "to flow" [Watkins], but de Vaan finds a better candidate in the PIE root *leit- (2) "to go forth" (see lead (v.1)), with sense evolution "the going away," hence "the edge."

The noun meaning "part of a country lying along the coast" is from 1828, from Italian littorale, originally an adjective, from Latin littoralis. Compare Lido.

Others are reading

Advertisement
Definitions of littoral from WordNet
1
littoral (n.)
the region of the shore of a lake or sea or ocean;
Synonyms: litoral / littoral zone / sands
2
littoral (adj.)
of or relating to a coastal or shore region;
From wordnet.princeton.edu