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

[Tom Zurinskas]

A good point.  So why should Americans be subject to the replacement of a word they already know, such as "tidal wave"
by a word they have trouble pronouncing, tsunami, or looking up because it starts with a silent letter, or connot fathom
the relevance of because of the invisible morphology that makes it relevant.  At least the word "tidal wave" is something
that is spellable, lookupable, and intuitive as to meaning based on English morphology.

So as an American in the American Dialect Society, I believe the word "tidal wave" should be retained because,
according to m-w.com, it antedates the word tsunami, is more intuitive as to meaning, and is more pronouncable
and spellable.  To me there is no more redeamable quality to tsunami than changing hurricane to typhoon.
Is that next?  So my vote is tidal wave over tsunami.  I find no sense in changing.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.




> Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:46:45 -0700
> From: gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM
> Subject: Re: "Silver Tsunami" (first "boomer" files for Social Security)
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Benjamin Barrett
> Subject: Re: "Silver Tsunami" (first "boomer" files for Social Security)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Tsunami does not mean "harbor wave" in English, but a wave caused by an
> earthquake or volcanic eruption.
>
> The morpheme tsu (æ´¥) certainly does mean harbor or port* and nami (æ³¢)
> 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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