Riptides

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A strong, narrow current of water flowing away from the shore
2. a hazardous phenomenon occurring due to tidal patterns that can pull swimmers out to deeper water
3. an underwater motion involving the ebbing tides that can create dangerous conditions at beaches

Etymology: "Riptides" is the plural of "riptide," a compound of "rip" and "tide." The "tide" part is the old English word for time, season, or a regular recurrence, which later came to mean the rise and fall of the sea. The "rip" part is the older and more striking of the two: it comes from the verb meaning to tear or cut something apart, the same sense that gives us the word for tearing a seam. A rip, in this sense, is a strong narrow current running out from the shore, and the word describes what it does to the water and to anyone caught in it. The combination therefore fuses a sea-movement word with a word for violent separation. The sense of a current that tears seaward is what a swimmer experiences, and that is why the name suits the hazard so well.

Synonyms: currents, tides