Anthropological Approach to Vulnerability and Major Hazards - Vulnerability of Coastal Ecosystems and Adaptation - page 299

does a tidal wave resemble a tsunami and, second, in what way is a
tsunami not like a tidal wave?
From the geological point of view, there is no difference between
the realities designated by the terms “tidal wave” and “tsunami”. Both
result from a telluric phenomenon (e.g. earthquake and volcanic
eruption) or something similar (e.g. landslide and meteorite shower),
leading to a sudden displacement of a significant mass of water (lake,
seas and oceans). The waves triggered by the non-telluric phenomena
(wind or phenomena of resonance and corresponding wave phases)
have their own terminology: “storm” or “rogue” waves. The
distinction does not arise from an objective difference; it does not
arise from the phenomenon “itself”, that is to say, considered as
uniquely of a mechanical (tectonic) order. The distinction is of a
mesological order, that is to say, it relates to the impact of this
phenomenon on the human milieu. A tidal wave can have no human
consequences, but not a tsunami. A tsunami is a tidal wave that affects
a community of people. A tidal wave that occurs in an uninhabited
zone (e.g. off Greenland or in the open sea) is not a tsunami, whatever
its size. In this case, from the Japanese point of view, it is simply a
question of a “large wave”. Moreover, even in cases where people are
present over a generally uninhabited zone (e.g. a group of scientists or
hunters on an expedition to Greenland, or - as Hokusai represented -
sailors at sea), it is not a tsunami. A tsunami is a tidal wave that
penetrates an ecumene, that is to say a zone inhabited by mankind. It
does not only threaten their existence, but a milieu in its entirety.
Because of this, since it relates to a variety of protagonists and occurs
in a social temporality, it creates a divergence in interpretation that
creates an argument and controversy on a social scale.
The word “tsunami” is written in Japanese by means of two
ideograms, each combining two symbols. The first ideogram means
“large wave” and the second ideogram means “port”. Etymologically
(“etymographically” we should say), a tsunami is therefore “a large
wave that flows inside a port”, that is to say a tidal wave, a storm
wave or a rogue wave that penetrates an inhabited zone and is
experienced by a human community. This definition is neither