jetty
n. countablen. a long structure built from the land out into the water. It is used to protect a harbor or to give people a place to get on and off boats.
n. a structure projecting from the shore into a body of water, designed to influence currents or protect a harbor from waves. Often used as a landing stage for vessels or as a walkway for pedestrians.
We walked to the end of the jetty to watch the sunset.
The small fishing boat was tied securely to the wooden jetty while the crew unloaded the morning catch.
Engineers designed the stone jetty to break the force of the incoming tide, thereby preventing the coastal road from eroding during winter storms.
The noun is derived from Late Middle English gete, jette, jetti (“projecting upper storey of a building, overhang; breakwater, pier, jetty”), from Anglo-Norman geté, getee, getté, and Middle French geté, getee, jeté (“projecting upper storey of a building; breakwater, pier”) (modern French jetée), a noun use of the past participle of geter, jeter, from Old French geter, jeter (“to throw”) from Late Latin iectāre, the present active infinitive of iectō (“to throw”), probably from Latin iactō (“to cast, hurl, throw”), from iaciō (“to cast, hurl, throw”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- (“to throw”)) + -tō (frequentative suffix). Compare jet (“(obsolete) protruding part”), jutty. The verb is derived from the noun.
From jet (“(obsolete) protruding part, projection”, noun) or jet (“to jut, project, protrude”, verb) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having the quality of’).
From jet (“hard, black form of coal; colour of jet coal”, noun) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having the quality of’).
From jet (“(obsolete) to strut; to walk with a lofty or haughty gait”, verb) + -y (suffix added for metrical reasons, or forming informal terms).
Commonly used in nautical and coastal engineering contexts; often interchangeable with 'pier' in casual speech.