英語「anchialine」一詞由荷蘭動物學家利克·霍采斯(英语:Lipke Holthuis)於1973年首度提出,該詞由希臘文「ankhialos」衍生而來,意為「濱海的」,最初用來描述隨著潮汐起落的陸上鹹水池,[註 1][2]1997年Brock, Richard E.和Kam, Alan K.H.再添加「滿潮時與其他水體分離」的原則。[註 2][3]此外,海水湖則是對湖面較大、且退潮時底部不乾涸的海下水蝕洞的通俗稱呼。[4]
^原文:…At several occasions red coloured caridean shrimps have been reported from tropical land-locked saltwater pools. These pools are situated at some distance from the sea, but, because the level of the water rises and falls with the tides, must have subterranean connections with the sea.…It is suggested now to use the term "anchialine" (from the Greek anchialos, near the sea) to indicate this type of habitat, rather than to have to define it each time as "pools with no surface connection with the sea, containing salt or brackish water, which fluctuates with the tides".…
^原文:…Besides the classical definition of an anchialine pool (i.e., a body of water having a measurable salinity and showing tidal fluctuations but no surface connections to the sea), the working definition of an anchialine pool used here is that it is isolated from other adjacent bodies of water at the highest tides. If adjacent pools show surface connections on high tides, they are considered to be part of a poll complex. A complex may have a number of depressions or basins, which through lower tides may appear as individual pools but coalesce, at higher tides.…