Why this word is great
RIVAGE — [Noun] The edge where land meets water, whether cliff, marsh, or shingle; also, historically, a toll levied for river passage. From Anglo-Norman and Middle French rivage, from Late Latin rīpāticum (related to rīpa, "bank or shore"). Unlike "plage" (which evokes sun-bleached sand and parasols) or "littoral" (which maps ecosystems), rivage is the raw margin itself—unglossed, untheorized. It is the slick black rocks of a Breton cove at low tide, the mudflats where herons stab for eels, the crumbling concrete embankment where a barge pays its dues. A word for the meeting place that asks nothing of what meets.