The word "tsunami" is originally a Japanese word. It is composed of two Japanese characters: "tsu" meaning "harbor" and "nami" meaning "wave," so it literally translates to "harbor wave." The term was first introduced into English in the late 19th century and has since become the commonly accepted word for this natural phenomenon in many languages, including English. Although the English pronunciation often drops the initial "ts" sound of the Japanese, the word remains borrowed directly from Japanese.