[Tagging] waterway=wadi problem

[Tod Fitch]

Since we are supposed to use British English, I decided to look up wadi in my old paper edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (can we trust that more than Wikipedia?):

"Wadi or Wady [Arabic: وادي‎ wādī] In certain Arabic speaking countries, a ravine or valley which in the rainy season becomes a watercourse; the stream or torrent running through such a ravine."

Apparently first used in English literature in 1839 by the way.

So it seems it could either be the valley or the actual intermittent watercourse. In that respect the term "wash" in the U.S. southwest is more specific as it is only applied to the intermittent watercourse. My impression from Southern California is that arroyo can be the valley/ravine as well as the actual watercourse, so that might match the OED definition of wadi more than "wash" does.

Tod

On Jan 16, 2015, at 5:36 AM, Volker Schmidt wrote:

> I now notice that I read the German Wikipedia entry for Wadi, which is plainly different form the English one. My fault. 
> The English Wikipedia defines Wadi mainly as a valley, wheras the German on as a normally dry water course. 
> 
> 
> On 16 January 2015 at 13:02, Richard Z. <ricoz.osm at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 15, 2015 at 11:41:26AM +0900, johnw wrote:
> > I strongly disagree. A wadi is usually only an active river through very rare flash flood events, and almost never any other time.  Entire biomes are defined by the presence of (and situated in) a wadi.
> >
> 
> how about reading wikipedia?
> <<
> Wadi (Arabic: وادي‎ wādī) is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some cases, it may refer to a dry (ephemeral) riverbed that contains water only during times of heavy rain or simply an intermittent stream.
> >>
> 
> I consider a wadi a geologic feature. In addition to the above wadis are expected
> to carry underground water.
> 
> Richard
> 
> 
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