beach (n.) 1530s, "loose, water-worn pebbles of the seashore," probably from a dialectal survival of Old English bece, bece...
beach (n.)
1530s, “loose, water-worn pebbles of the seashore,” probably from a dialectal survival of Old English bece, bece “stream,” from Proto-Germanic *bakiz. Extended to loose, pebbly shores (1590s), and in dialect around Sussex and Kent beach still has the meaning “pebbles worn by the waves.” French grève shows the same evolution.
Hmm, don’t like that transformation
Alternate history where we call them strands
#thats just dutch
Incidentally, this is where the word “stranded” comes from