sea
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GC: n

S: NatGeo – https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/sea/ (last access: 26 April 2025); NOAA – https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/oceanorsea.html (last access: 26 April 2025).

N: 1. Middle English se, seo, from Old English sæ, “sheet of water, sea, lake, pool,” from Proto-Germanic *saiwa- (source also of Old Saxon seo, Old Frisian se, Middle Dutch see, Dutch zee, German See, Swedish sjö), of unknown origin, outside connections “wholly doubtful” [Buck], and an IE etymon “has generally been doubted” [Boutkan]. The meaning “any great mass or large quantity” (of anything) is from c. 1200.

The meaning “dark area of the moon’s surface” is attested from 1660s (see mare (n.2)); before the invention of telescopes they were supposed to be water.

2. Sea is a general name for the body of salt water that covers the greater part of the surface of the Earth. The largest sections are called oceans. The term is also used to identify some smaller landlocked bodies of water, such as the Caspian Sea. (See also ocean and names of individual oceans and seas.)

3. Toponymy; Hydrology and Hydrography: sea.

  • Large body of salt water.
  • sea: term and definition validated by the Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (CPCGN) within the scope of its glossary (BT-176) which is the first authoritative publication on generics in use in Canada.
  • Phraseology: Beaufort Sea.

– Hydrology and Hydrography: sea.

  • A large saline lake.
  • sea: term and definition standardized by ISO.

4. The Moon (Astronomy): mare, maria, sea.

  • One of the several dark, low-lying, level, relatively smooth, plains-like areas of considerable extent on the surface of the Moon, having fewer large craters than the highlands, and composed of mafic or ultramafic volcanic rock …
  • Expanses of iron-rich basaltic lava flows of low albedo (i.e. comparatively dark) that were erupted onto the lunar surface.
  • … the Moon’s eastern hemisphere, contains five large “seas” which actually are vast plains of frozen lava.
  • [A mare] is completely waterless.

5. Collocations:

– large area of salt water:

  • adj + noun (sea): calm, smooth | choppy, rough | deep | shallow | blue, grey | cold | warm | inland | open.
  • verb + noun (sea): cross. | go to (= become a sailor) | put (out) to The ship put to sea (= left port) in deteriorating weather conditions. | be lost at. | stare out to.
  • noun (sea) + verb: rise. | recede, retreat.
  • noun (sea) + noun: water | bottom, floor | breeze | creature | port (also seaport), voyage | cliff, front, view.
  • preposition + noun (sea): at sea. | across the sea.| by (the) sea. | down to the sea. | in/into the sea. | on the sea. | out to sea.
  • phrases: the bottom/edge/middle/surface of the sea, the boom/booming/murmur/roar/sound of the sea.

– (also the seas) movement of the waves of the sea:

  • adj. + noun (sea): choppy, dangerous, heavy, mountainous, raging, rough, stormy.
  • verb + noun (sea): roam, sail.
  • Phrases: on the high seas, the seven seas.

– large amount of sth:

  • adj. + noun (sea): vast.
  • noun (sea) + preposition: sea of.

6. Cultural Interrelation: We can mention the novels Moby-Dick or, The Whale (1851) written by Herman Melville (1819-1891), and The Old Mand and The Sea (1951) written by Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961).

S: 1. Etymonline – https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=sea (last access: 26 April 2025). 2. KidsBrit – https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/sea/336001 (last access: 26 April 2025). 3 & 4. TERMIUM PLUS (last access: 26 April 2025). 5. OCD – https://www.freecollocation.com/search?word=sea (last access: 26 April 2025). 6. GR – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/153747.Moby_Dick_or_The_Whale, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2165.The_Old_Man_and_the_Sea?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_12 (last access: 26 April 2025).

SYN:
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CR: balsero, beaching place, Beaufort scale, boat people, bore, buccaneer, dizziness, El Niño, explosive cyclogenesis, fish, flood, freebooter, edible crab, galerne, grounding, humanitarian convoy, Irukandji syndrome, jellyfish, kamikaze, La Niña, letter of marque, low-pressure area, meteorology, microplastic, mirage, motion sickness, ocean, penguin, piracy, pirate, plastic, Portuguese man-of-war, privateer, raft, reverse osmosis, Saffir-Simpson scale, scampi, scurvy, sea sickness, shipwreck, shoal, shower, small boat, spider crab, spill, spiny lobster, storm, stranding, stranding site, thunderstorm, tidal wave, tsunami, turtle, typhoon, whitefish, wreck.