you can't hide / from the misuse of the tides
(apologies to Richard Thompson)
in light of recent world events, i began wondering why anyone uses the term "tidal wave" when it has nothing at all to do with tides? normal waves are tidal waves, but large destructive waves are something else entirely. even my dictionary calls "tidal wave" a non-technical term for a tsunami "not actually related to the tides". fortunately, the internet knows all:
Sometime in the 1800s (see 1878 quote), ‘tidal wave’ became confused with what now might properly be called a ‘seismic sea wave’ or ‘tsunami’ (Japanese, from ‘tsu,’ port, harbor + ‘nami’ wave, first appearing in English print in 1897). The original misuse of ‘tidal wave’ was probably a result of the fact that there was no proper generally recognized word for the phenomenon at the time and it, more or less, filled the void.
recently the Discovery Channel seriously amped up its tsunami-related program schedule. one of the most interesting things i saw was a feature about the largest tsunami ever recorded - a 1958 wave in Lituya Bay, Alaska caused by a landslide that reached a height of 1,700 feet at it's most massive.