The Seaside Is a British Institution
The seaside is the coast considered as a place to visit. Britain built a whole culture there, and the word carries all of it.
The seaside is the coast regarded as somewhere to go. The word is culturally British in a way that *coast* and *beach* are not: piers, deckchairs, fish and chips, donkey rides and rain. Railways created the seaside holiday in the nineteenth century by making the coast reachable in a day.
- The coast as a destination. *A day at the seaside.*
- Seaside as a modifier. *A seaside town.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | seaside | Down to the seaside. |
| Adjective | seaside | A seaside resort. |
| Related | coast | The south coast. |
| Related | beach | A sandy beach. |
| Related | shore | Along the shore. |
How it is used in a sentence
- We went to the seaside for the day.British: always with the.
- The seaside town has seen better decades.A common theme in British writing.
- Americans say the beach or the shore.Seaside is rare there.
Seaside institutions
- Pier — a structure running out over the water
- Promenade — the walkway along the front
- Deckchair — the folding wooden chair
- Punch and Judy — the traditional puppet show
- Rock — hard sugar sticks with lettering through them
A compound of *sea* and *side*, in use since the sixteenth century. The holiday sense grew with the railways after the 1840s.
Seaside or beach?
The beach is the strip of sand or shingle. The seaside is the whole place, including the town behind it.
How is lettering put through seaside rock?
Coloured strips are assembled around a core while the sugar is soft, and the whole mass is drawn out thin, keeping the pattern along its length.