beach n.

1840, from beach (n.) + agent noun from comb (v.). Century Dictionary (1889) defines it as "A seafaring man generally, of vagrant and drunken habits, who idles about the wharves of seaports; used most frequently in countries bordering on the Pacific ocean." The original reference (Dana, "Two Years Before the Mast") used the word to describe the life of "half of the Americans and English who are adrift along the coasts of the Pacific and its islands."

It also could mean "a long, rolling wave."

also beachfront, "part of a town fronting and facing the sea, seashore of a town," American English, 1876, the beach front (in reference to Galveston); see beach (n.) + front (n.). As an adjective by 1889, in reference to Atlantic City.

also beachhead, "a position on a beach taken from the enemy by assault from the sea and used as a base for further attack," 1940, in reference to German military tactics in World War II, from beach (n.) + head (n.). On the model of bridgehead, but the image doesn't quite work; worse is the attempt at airhead.