Blonde Girl At The Shore Posing On The Quay

The word comes from the Old English hwearf, meaning "bank" or "shore", and its plural is either wharfs, or, especially in American English, wharves; collectively a group of these is referred to as a wharfing or wharfage. "Wharfage" also refers to a fee ports impose on ships against the amount of cargo handled there.
In the northeast and east of England the term staithe or staith (from the Norse for landing stage) is also used. For example Dunston Staiths in Gateshead and Brancaster Staithe in Norfolk. However, the term staithe may also be used to refer only to loading chutes or ramps used for bulk commodities like coal in loading ships and barges. It has been suggested that wharf actually is an acronym for ware-house at river front, but this is a backronym, spread around as a fact by tour guides on Thames river boats.
Another explanation may be that the word wharf comes from the Dutch word "werf" which means 'yard', an outdoor place where work is done, like a shipyard or a lumberyard.