Other forms: lifeguards
A lifeguard is the person who watches swimmers and rescues those in trouble. The lifeguard blew a whistle, a beach lifeguard, train as a lifeguard.
The job is mostly watching: a lifeguard scans the water constantly and the rescues are rare and fast. Pool and beach lifeguarding are separate qualifications, and beach work adds surf, tides and rip currents. In Britain the RNLI provides lifeguards on many beaches, and the red and yellow flags mark the patrolled area. Note lifebuoy, lifeboat and lifejacket, all built the same way.
1nounlifeguardSomebody who watches swimmers and rescues them.
“The lifeguard blew her whistle and waved the swimmers back towards the beach.”
lifeguard is a rescue worker.
Dutch lijfgarde meant a bodyguard — a guard for the life, meaning the body, of a ruler. English kept the word and moved it from the palace to the swimming pool.
Dutch
lijfgarde
English, today
lifeguard
Built from
From life + guard, Dutch lijfgarde, where life has the sense of lijf (“body”) (hence literally “bodyguard”). Compare German Leibgarde (“bodyguard”), Danish livgarde (“bodyguard”), Swedish livgarde (“bodyguard”). Compare also Old English līfweard (“guardian of life”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA