seachange
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈsiːˌt͡ʃeɪnd͡ʒ/
rhymes: -iːtʃeɪndʒ
Forms: form: seachanges
Etymology: From sea + change; sense 1 (“movement of people from cities to rural coastal areas; act of relocating from an urban to a rural coastal community”) was possibly coined by the Australian author and demographer Bernard Salt in his book The Big Shift (2001), based on the title of the Australian television series SeaChange (1998–2000 and 2019) about a lawyer who moved with her daughters from the city to a coastal town.
Senses: examples: text: The seachange shift was initiated by retirees from the late 1960s although it did acquire a spiritual status when embraced by the boomers from 2001 onwards. […] The drivers of treechange and seachange are the same: people wanting a simpler life in a pleasant town with all the amenities not too far from their interests in the city.
ref: 2006, Bernard Salt, “Values and Mores”, in The Big Picture: Life, Work and Relationships in the 21st Century, Prahran, Vic.: Hardie Grant Books, published 2007, →ISBN, part 1 (Life), page 23:
text: For example, the ‘seachange’ and ‘treechange’ movements have seen transitions in rural and regional communities, with the influx of wealthy city-dwellers increasing the price of housing and demanding the provision of particular services and facilities[…].
ref: 2007, Susan Thompson, “Planning for Diverse Communities”, in Susan Thompson, editor, Planning Australia: An Overview of Urban and Regional Planning, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 204:
text: This is supported by consultant reports she found online, whose interpretations of ABS data point to the emergence of seachange and treechange towns that have increasing demand for services. (Seachange and treechange are terms used to describe people moving out of cities to coastal or rural areas.)
ref: 2010, Philip Thomas, Profit from Property: Your Step-by-step Guide to Successful Real Estate Development, Milton, Qld.: Wrightbooks; Richmond, Vic.: John Wiley & Sons Australia, published 2011, →ISBN:
coordinate_terms: treechange
glosses: A movement of people from cities to rural coastal areas.
examples: text: Surrey […] was negotiating with his wife to move the family (two teenaged girls, reluctant to leave their high school friends) to Tathra and a new house, perhaps with a view of the sea. The trick was going to be maintaining the loyalty of his longstanding if slow-paying rural clients, when he planned to spend most of his time on the coast, away from the extremes of the Goulburn climate ('Either too cold, too hot, too dry, too windy, or too wet,' he was wont to say). There had proved to be lots of minor crime on the coast, which augured well for the seachange.
ref: 2013, Stuart Littlemore, “A Personal Injury Paradox”, in Harry Curry: Rats and Mice: Ugly. Irascible. Intolerant. Clever., Sydney, N.S.W.: HarperCollins, →ISBN:
coordinate_terms: treechange
glosses: An act of relocating from an urban to a rural coastal community.
examples: text: It is interesting to watch how the most unpromising subject seems to warm and assimilate with his [John Randolph of Roanoke's] genius. Everything undergoes a seachange.
ref: 1879 October, W. C. B., “John Randolph: A Sketch”, in W. P. Kent, editor, The Virginia University Magazine, volume XIX, number 1, Charlottesville, Va.: Literary Societies of the University of Virginia; Chronicle Steam Book and Job Printing Office, →OCLC, page 38:
text: New economic, social and international pressures were threatening a seachange in the language of politics, with more activism sought from government than in the laissez-faire nineteenth century.
ref: 1996, Anthony Seldon, “Introduction: The Tory Party in Power: 1783–1996”, in How Tory Governments Fall: The Tory Party in Power since 1783, London: Fourth Estate, HarperCollins, published June 2016, →ISBN:
glosses: Alternative form of sea change (“a profound transformation; a metamorphosis”).
Derived terms: seachanger
treechange