GC: n
CT: In tidal waters, the intersection of the plane of mean low water with the shore. In this definition, it may be assumed that plane of mean low water means a horizontal plane through the average location of the water’s surface on a tide gauge during low water.
S: ASCE – http://goo.gl/ILQ0Dd (last access: 18 November 2014).
N: 1. low (adj): ‘not high’ late 13c., from lah (late 12c.), ‘not rising much, being near the base or ground’ (of objects or persons); ‘lying on the ground or in a deep place’ (late 13c.), from Old Norse lagr ‘low’, or a similar Scandinavian source (compare Swedish låg, Danish lav), from Proto-Germanic *lega- ‘lying flat, low’ (cognates: Old Frisian lech, Middle Dutch lage, Dutch laag ‘low’, dialectal German läge ‘flat’), from PIE legh– ‘to lie’. Meaning ‘humble in rank’ is from c.1200; ‘undignified’ is from 1550s; sense of ‘dejected, dispirited’ is attested from 1737; meaning ‘coarse, vulgar’ is from 1759. In reference to sounds, ‘not loud’, also ‘having a deep pitch’, it is attested from c.1300. Of prices, from c.1400. In geographical usage, low refers to the part of a country near the sea-shore (c.1300, as in Low Countries ‘Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg’, 1540s). As an adverb c.1200, from the adjective.
water (n): Old English wæter, from Proto-Germanic *watar (cognates: Old Saxon watar, Old Frisian wetir, Dutch water, Old High German wazzar, German Wasser, Old Norse vatn, Gothic wato ‘water’), from wod-or, from root wed- (1) “water, wet” (cognates: Hittite watar, Sanskrit udrah, Greek hydor, Old Church Slavonic and Russian voda, Lithuanian vanduo, Old Prussian wundan, Gaelic uisge ‘water’, Latin unda ‘wave’). To keep (one’s) head above water in the figurative sense is recorded from 1742. Water cooler is recorded from 1846; water polo from 1884; water torture from 1928. Linguists believe PIE had two root words for water: ap– and wed-. The first (preserved in Sanskrit apah as well as Punjab and julep) was ‘animate’, referring to water as a living force; the latter referred to it as an inanimate substance. The same probably was true of fire.
2. The line defined by the boundary of a body of water at its lowest elevation (stage). Because there may be appreciable variation with time in the elevation of the low-water surface at a designated locality, an average value of the elevation of low water should be used in determining the location of the low-water line on the ground.
3. The line formed by the intersection of the land with the water’s surface at low water. As low water may vary considerably with time at a designated locality, an average value of the height at low water should be used in determining the position, on land, of the low-water line.
4. In tidal water, the line formed by the intersection of the land with the surface of mean low water.
5. The intersection of the plane of low water with the shore.
S: 1. OED – http://goo.gl/hLHeEa (last access: 18 November 2014). 2, 3, 4 & 5. ASCE – http://goo.gl/ILQ0Dd (last access: 18 November 2014).
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