Waterhammer and World Languages – A Decade Ago and Today

An amusing minor coincidence happened to me in writing this President's Perspective. I have been thinking for a while about writing an update to a blog I wrote some time ago about what various world languages call the English word waterhammer. I happened to decide that this was the month I was going to update my previous blog. And when I looked back for the link of my original blog on Waterhammer and World Languages, it was exactly 10 years ago this month! I seem to have been destined to write on this subject this month. So, what do some other world languages call waterhammer?

My blog from 10 years ago discussed the imperfect nature of the word waterhammer in the English language. It also discussed the word used in the romance languages of Europe (Spanish and French). And it discussed Chinese and Thai. One interesting thing I discovered recently is this Wikipedia page on waterhammer in French - Coup de Bélier (the French word for waterhammer). The author of the Wiki page referenced a paper from yours truly (see Reference #9). It is good to know at least someone reads the technical papers I write!

There was a comment from a South African engineer at the bottom of my blog from 10 years ago about waterhammer in the Afrikaans language. The heritage for the Afrikaans language is Dutch, and the word used for waterhammer in both languages is waterslag – which is translated as water hammer.

I met some Israeli engineers a few years ago who told me the Hebrew word for waterhammer is nach'shol lachatz – which is translated as wave pressure.

At an ASME conference a few years ago I met a German and a Ukrainian engineer. I learned that the German word for waterhammer is druckstoss – which is translated as pressure surge. The Ukrainian engineer told me the Russian word for waterhammer is hydro udar - which is translated as hydraulic impact.

Anyone want to help me with waterhammer in some other languages I have not yet mentioned? If so, leave a comment below!