wrote in message
...
On Tue, 4 Jan 2005 08:51:03 -0000, "BAC"
wrote:


"Douglas" wrote in message
news

June Hughes Wrote:
In message
When did everybody start calling a tidal wave a tsunami and why?

I had never heard of one until there was a programme on TV
around a year or so ago.
--
June Hughes


Weather bosses decided that it needed a more up to date image and
rebranding ............??



Could be they were looking for a short, snappy and memorable name for an
unusually large ocean wave caused by an undersea earthquake. The japanese
have a name for such waves, perhaps because they live on islands in an
area
of frequent earthquake activity, so it probably made sense to adopt the
term.

We have a term for it too Tidal Wave.


True, however our language is peppered with words of 'foreign' origin,
adopted for one reason or another, it's one way it evolves.