"Tim Challenger" wrote in message
news:1104917378.33e402cc30bfd22cb86573c2e70ae991@t eranews...
On Tue, 4 Jan 2005 18:08:45 -0000, BAC wrote:

The point is, a person who doesn't speak Japanese either knows what the
term
tsunami means, or does not, so no confusion, whereas an English speaker
who
does not know the accepted definition of 'tidal wave' might be tempted
to
derive a definition intuitively, hence the possibility of confusion.

But they'd be pretty sure to guess it has something to do with a big wave,
and let's face, that's what counts. Plus there's more chance that an
English peaker would have heard it and actually know what it means.

Maybe. Personally, I doubt there are many English speakers who have not
heard the term 'tsunami' and learned to associate it with images of
destruction caused by 'freak' waves crashing ashore in the Pacific area.

Perhaps we should say that 'tsunami' is the common term used for earthquake
induced waves in the pacific area, and 'tidal wave' would be the preferred
term if/when they occur in English speaking parts of the Atlantic area.
After all, cyclones can have different names like hurricane and typhoon
depending on where they are encountered, so why not waves?