This week’s theme
Words made with letters that double as musical notes

This week’s words
adage
accede
efface
facade
beachhead


This week’s comments
AWADmail 1134

Next week’s theme
Verbing the noun, nouning the verb

---

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(BEECH-hed)

MEANING:

noun:
1. An area of the shore secured by an advancing military force from which to advance further inland.
2. A foothold opening the way for further advance.

ETYMOLOGY:

From beach, of unknown origin + Old English heafod (top of the body). Earliest documented use: 1920.

NOTES:

On D-Day, Jun 6, 1944, Allied soldiers secured five beachheads in France, code-named Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno, and Sword, for making further inroads into Europe during WWII. Two variants of today’s term are bridgehead (an area secured at the end of a bridge nearest the enemy) and airhead (an area secured by airborne troops).

On a different note, what is the word beachhead, with its letter H doing in this week’s theme? The German music notation, also used in some other countries, utilizes the letters A-H. The B natural is called H, and the B flat is known as B. BACH hid his name in his compositions as an Easter egg. (video, 3 min.)

USAGE:

“The Wall Street giants ... have long used London as a beachhead from which to serve wholesale clients across Europe.”
Brex and the City; The Economist (London, UK); Oct 24, 2020.

See more usage examples of beachhead in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: