The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #3265   Message #350163
Posted By: Snuffy
02-Dec-00 - 11:44 AM
Thread Name: Byker Hill: background info anyone?
Subject: RE: Byker Hill: background info anyone?
The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary gives shore1 (sea-shore etc) as coming from Middle Low German and/or Middle Dutch schöre, perhaps from the same base as 'shear'.

Shore2 (a prop or stay) also comes from Middle Low German and/or Middle Dutch schöre - a prop. But it's not clear whether these are the same or two different words.

And shore3 is a sewer:
Shore, sb.3 1598. [orig in common shore, perh. an application of this phr. (SHORE sb.1) in the sense 'no-man's-land at the water-side, where filth was deposited for the tide to wash away'. Not a var. of SEWER sb.1 (common sewer is later).] = SEWER sb.1
Olde receptacles, or common-shores of filthe. SHAKS

Wassail! V