Interview on NPR’s Morning Edition about the history of the word “tsunami.” (Mar. 18, 2011)
The word “tsunami” is originally a Japanese word, but today it’s commonly used in English. And it’s been all over the news since a powerful earthquake sent a wall of water into northeastern Japan on March 11.
The first English use of the word happened more than 100 years ago, says linguist Ben Zimmer, of the Visual Thesaurus. That’s when an earthquake struck off the east coast of Japan, very close to where the recent tsunami hit.