12Oct Friday, October 3, 2008 – Littoral

littoral \LIH-tuh-rul\, adjective:

1. Of, relating to, or on a coastal or shore region, especially a seashore.
2. A coastal region, especially the zone between the limits of high and low tides.

Professor Henslow tells me, he believes that nearly all the plants which I brought from these islands, are common littoral species in the East Indian archipelago.
— Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle

A country that is landlocked or has few neighbors will be more vulnerable than one that is littoral or extensive.
— Franklin L. Lavin,, “Asphyxiation or Oxygen? The Sanctions Dilemma”, Foreign Policy, September-October 1996

Like 49ers staking claims in California, the five littoral nations have asserted overlapping territorial claims in the Caspian itself.
— Richard Stone, “Caspian Ecology Teeters On the Brink”, Science, January 18, 2002

As the Portuguese moved south along the Upper Guinea Coast along the littoral of Sierra Leone, a region known as the Windward Coast, they entered another major area of rice cultivation.
— Judith A. Carney, Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas

Littoral derives from Latin littoralis, litoralis, from litor-, litus, “the seashore.”

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for littoral

I know, I know, more than one whole week between posts. Shameful. I’ll be honest, when I hit one of these incredibly difficult and odd words with very slim matches, I find it hard to work up the verve to make a post. Most of these have something to do with a boat near a shore line or lava flows hitting the ocean. I wanted something a little interesting. I did find this fun little tidbit with some (I’m guessing) sports fans rowing their car down the road … without water, and right past a couple of police officers!