Estacade

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɛstəkeɪd/

Definitions

1. A type of wooden or fortified barrier, commonly used for defense, that supports structures like piers while also providing shoreline protection
2. A defensive wooden construction that safeguards waterfronts and serves as a support for piers or similar structures
3. A sturdy construction made of wood used to hold up piers and shield shorelines from waves

Etymology: Anyone who has seen a row of sharpened timbers driven into a riverbed has seen the thing this word names, and its roots lie in the humble stake. "Estacade" was borrowed from French, where it describes a palisade of stakes set into water to block a channel or hold back a bank. Its cousins are Italian "steccata" and Spanish "estacada", which both point to the same picture: a barrier built from upright posts. Those relatives are the key to the word's family tree. All of them trace back to a common Germanic source that also gave English "stake", the pointed piece of wood or metal driven into the ground. The English word is therefore a relative of "estacade" rather than its ancestor, so the two look alike because they grew from the same stem. English readers meeting "estacade" in a harbour context are, in effect, meeting an old cousin of a word they use every day for garden stakes and tent pegs.

Synonyms: pier, jetty, dock, wharf, landing