[Tagging] looking for native speaker opinion: tidal / tidalflat / tidal flat

[John F. Eldredge]

Martin Koppenhoefer <dieterdreist at gmail.com> wrote:

> Beeing the two proponents of tidalflat_path and tidal_road not native
> English speakers we decided to ask here in the international list
> which term is best suited (please only reply if you are a native
> speaker).
> 
> the alternatives are:
> 
> A: tidal (tidal_path, tidal_road)
> 
> B: tidalflat (tidalflat_path, tidalflat_road)
> 
> C: tidal flat (tidal_flat_path, tidal_flat_road)
> 
> 
> thank you,
> Martin
> 

My recommendation, as a native English speaker, would be to use tidal rather than tidal flat.  Tidal flat is apparently a synoym for mud flat, but such roads might also be placed across sandy or rocky terrain.  For that matter, such terrain might not be completely flat; there might be some areas that are only submerged when there is an extra-high tide, or if there is a storm.

-- 
John F. Eldredge -- john at jfeldredge.com
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria