"Silver Tsunami" (first "boomer" files for Social Security)

[Benjamin Barrett]

Tsunami does not mean "harbor wave" in English, but a wave caused by an
earthquake or volcanic eruption.

The morpheme tsu (津) certainly does mean harbor or port* and nami (波)
means wave in Japanese, but that morphology is invisible in English,
which is why it's a nice substitute for tidal wave.

* I wonder if tsu is recognizable even to native Japanese speakers. I
don't think I've ever heard it outside of place names and the word tsunami.

Benjamin Barrett
a cyberbreath for language life
livinglanguages.wordpress.com

Tom Zurinskas wrote:
> From m-w.com, tsunami means "harbor wave", which to me does not have the impact of a "tidal wave".  Tidal wave has an earlier date associated - 1851, see m-w.com
>
> Main Entry: tsu·na·mi
> Pronunciation: \(t)su̇-ˈnä-mē\
> Function: noun
> Inflected Form(s): plural tsunamis also tsunami
> Etymology: Japanese, from tsu harbor + nami wave
> Date: 1897
> : a great sea wave produced especially by submarine earth movement or volcanic eruption : tidal wave
>
>

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