Oh my word Beach, Beech Birch, Bleach

The advantage of living in a coastal city like Chennai is one can go to the beach! Beach is the sandy shore of a lake or the edge of a sea. Beach as a noun refers to the edge of the sea which can be sandy or pebbly. Beach is the watermark of seashore between high and low waves. Beach as verb refers to bringing a ship or a boat or moving things to the shore from the water.

Derivatives of the verb form of beach are beached, beaching, beaches (also plural noun) and beachless is an adjective. A dead humpbacked whale beached in Pacifica, California drawing the attention of the world. Beach-ball is a game played on the beaches with a ball. Beachhead is a position on a beach for the army to patrol or mount an attack.

Beachwear is a range of clothes for swimming, sunbathing, playing beach-ball or any other game on the beach. Beachbuggy is the vehicle to go along the beach. Other compound words formed out of beach are beachcombing, beachcomber, beach chair, beachfront, beachlike, and beachy.

Few successful Bollywood actors have beachfront houses. Beachcomber is a beggar on the beaches or waterfronts. Beachcomber is a seaman who hangs around ports and lives out of the charity of others. Beachcomber is also a town in Australia and an island’s name in Fiji.

Beech is a tree. Beech is a type of tree. Beech has shiny leaves and smooth bark of light grey colour. It is a multi-branched tree with pointed leaves. Its fruits are triangular nuts. Its wood is used to make furniture. Words formed out of beech are beechnut, beechwood; beechy and beechen are adjectives.

Beechdrops is a parasitic plant that grows on the roots of beech trees. Birch is tree of temperate climate. Birch has a smooth bark and thin branches. Birch twigs were used to flog pupils and offenders. Bleach as a verb means to cause something to become pale or white in colour usually done by chemicals or due natural action such as sunlight.

Her hairs were bleached by the sun. Bleach as a noun refers to the substance or the process used to sterilize or bleach clothes (to remove stains), and change colour. Bleaching powder is used in washing clothes to remove stains, also in removing colour from dyed materials.

“Imports were restricted, and the Indians had not yet learned how to make cheese, just as they had not yet learned how to bleach newsprint.” –An Area of Darkness by V S Naipaul

Kovuuri G Reddy