Etymologically
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tidal

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈtaɪ.d(ə)l/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English tide + -al,[2][3][4][5][6] a hybrid of a native noun and a suffix of Latin origin.[7][8] The noun tide goes back to Old English tīd (“point or portion of time, season”), and its "time" senses are now mostly archaic.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of, relating to or affected by the tides; ebbing and flowing periodically: 1715, in Edward Barlow's Meteorological Essays.[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date the word from 1807,[7][5] and the Shorter Oxford, Hoad and Dictionary.com from the early 19th century.[4][3][6]

Semantic evolution

By the mid 19th century tidal was also used of things that depend on the state of the tide, such as a boat whose sailings are timed by the tide, a train run to meet it, or a harbour that can be entered only at high tide;[4][5] from 1866 the adjective alone could be used as a noun for such a boat or train.[2][4] A figurative sense, "that ebbs and flows; periodic, intermittent", appears in 1876 in George Eliot's Daniel Deronda.[2][4] A tidal wave (1819) was properly a high water caused by the tides; its use for a great inundation caused by an earthquake is recorded by 1868, and such a wave now tends to be called a tsunami.[7] The figurative tidal wave of feeling is recorded by 1870.[7] The energy of the tides was called tidal energy from 1827,[2] and in 1954 British road engineers named tidal flow the use of the same lanes for traffic in either direction according to the time of day.[2][4]

Timeline

  • 1715 – of or affected by the tides.[2]
  • 1807 – first date in Etymonline and Merriam-Webster.[7][5]
  • 1819 – tidal wave, a high water caused by the tides.[7]
  • 1827 – of the energy of the tides.[2]
  • 1866 – noun, a tidal boat or train.[2]
  • 1868 – tidal wave, an inundation caused by an earthquake.[7]
  • 1876 – figurative, ebbing and flowing, periodic.[2]
  • 1954 – of road traffic using the same lanes in either direction.[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Of, caused by or affected by the tides: tidal currents in the estuary.
  2. Depending on the state of the tide, as a boat that sails at high water or a harbour that can be entered only then.
  3. Rising and falling, or ebbing and flowing, at intervals; figuratively, periodic or alternating.
  4. Of road traffic, using the same lanes in opposite directions according to the time of day.
  5. (physiology) Of the air drawn into and breathed out of the lungs in an ordinary breath, as in tidal volume.

Noun

  1. A tidal boat or train.

Word family

  • tidally
  • nontidal
  • untidal
  • cotidal
  • intertidal
  • tidal air
  • tidal basin
  • tidal bore
  • tide
  • tidings
  • betide
  • tidy
  • time

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.