The inner end or uppermost part of a bay where it narrows into the mainland, often where a river or stream flows in.
From Old French 'baie' (bay) combined with English 'head,' referring to the geographical feature at the terminus of a coastal indentation. The compound emerged in Middle English as colonists needed to describe specific locations in newly explored coastal regions.
Bayhead locations were strategically important for early colonial settlements because rivers flowing into bayheads provided freshwater and transportation routes inland—many major American cities like Baltimore started at bayheads.
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