What does tsunami mean ?

In Japaneese tsunami mean "harbor wave". In written language it's represented by two characters: the top character "tsu" means harborr, the bottom one "nami" means wave. In the past general public called tsunamis "tidal waves". This term is a misnomer because tsunamis are unrelated to tides. Among scientific comunity, there was used the "seismic sea wave" term. It's also a misleading, because tsunamis can be also caused by a nonseismic event, such as a landslide or meteorite impact.