# body of water



## razovsuki

Is there a specific word for a "body of water" in Japanese ?

Thx!


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## lammn

Hello razovsuki,

How about 水体（すいたい）?


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## razovsuki

えぇぇ？本当？

This seems a little too litteral though...
In French, we say "un plan d'eau" which has nothing to do with the "body" from "body of water". That's why I'm sceptic about 水体 (which btw no dictionary seems to know! ).

Maybe there's no specific expression and it has to be formed using a relative clause. But it would be simpler if there was an actual Name.

Thanks for your suggestion anyway!


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## Mugi

You can sometimes use 水域, but as always, it depends on context.


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## razovsuki

For the context, I'm describing what a "tide pool" is, saying that it's a shallow body of water in which it's possible to walk.

Does 水域 fit in that context?


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## masatom

Hello.

I don't know " Body of water."  What is it ?

If you refer to water in our body, i.e. body fluid, the Jananese is 体液.
But it seems different from what you mean.

Thanks.


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## razovsuki

Masatom, thanks for your suggestion.

Indeed, it is not what I mean by that.
A body of water represents any accumulation of water (still water, not running like rivers) such as lakes, ponds, puddles but also seas and oceans.

I guess the category in which fits my example would be between a pond and a lake (though a lake could be from rather small to very big). So I guess a pond is better here 

(With the definition of a "body of water" that I just gave, I can't help but correct myself because in French we would say "une étendue d'eau" rather than "un plan d'eau" since it also includes seas and oceans)


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## razovsuki

And here's the answer that I wanted:

Whether I name directly the type of "body of water" that I need like 池 or 湖, or I use the "definition" (relative clause) taken  from the Yahoo! Japan dictionary 水の集まっている所 since it seems that there ain't any Name for that.

Thx for your help!


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## Flaminius

razovsuki said:


> And here's the answer that I wanted:
> 
> Whether I name directly the type of "body of water" that I need like 池 or 湖, or I use the "definition" (relative clause) taken  from the Yahoo! Japan dictionary 水の集まっている所 since it seems that there ain't any Name for that.
> 
> Thx for your help!


Wait a second.  There is a name for that, even though it is rather an awkward word to use in a definition of tide pool in Japanese.  It's 水域 (by the way, I am not overly enchanted with タイドプール while a more familiar Japanese word 潮溜まり is freely available).

Moderator Note:
Please provide context (tide pool) and background information (you wanted to write a definition of the word) in the thread-opening post.  As I will say below, there are a few Japanese translations for body of water for different contexts.  It was impossible to select one without context.
Also, all posts in WR forums should be written with standard writing conventions such as full spelling, punctuation, and capitalisation.  A few more words for all this can be found in the forum rules.
 
*lammn*, 水体 is, as far as my experience goes, a very special term used in fishing industry and physics.


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## razovsuki

Well, I'm not a specialist of *tide pools*, but I would say that it's a portion of a beach surrounded by rocks (at least on the sea side), which is filled with water so that it forms like a "pool" separate from the actual sea.
Depending on the tide level, this pool may be whether almost empty (so we can walk inside freely), or "full".
The size of such tide pools varies greatly depending on the actual shape that the rocks around form, so there's not really a _standart size_.

So, I simply want to say basically that tide pools are "shallow bodies of water where it is possible to walk in the water".
I could say in place of "body of water" a "water area" I guess, if that's helping for translation!

Is this sufficient for the context? I don't think I could provide more than that...

Thank you.


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## masatom

Hi.
Finally I've got the answer, maybe.

*Mizutamari 水溜り　みずたまり　may be your answer !*

"shallow bodies of water where it is possible to walk in the water" is perfectly fit with mizutamari.
But we usually think mizutamari is only 50cm in diameter or at maximum a few meters in diameter.
We don't say lake or pond as mizutamari. It is too large for mizutamari.
We usually see mizutamari at roads and yards after rainfall.

My dictionary says that mizutamari is ghilgai, gilgai, gilguy(Australia), plash, pool,
pool of water, puddle, seep water hole, waterhole, watering hole.

I think this may be your answer, and at the same time I think it may not be your answer.

Thanks.


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## masatom

Hi. 
My dictionary says that the tide is the regular change in the level of the sea on the shore.
So if you want to say tide pool of the sea, and you can walk the area, 
we say  *とおあさ　遠浅　tooasa.  *or*  あさせ　　浅瀬　　asase.*

My dictionary says that とおあさ　is shelving bottom.
And my dictionary says that あさせ　is bank, flats, ford, shallow shallow end, shallow place, shallow reach, shallow waters, shallows, shoal, shoal water,watersprash

Is this your answer? maybe not....


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## razovsuki

Actually, my goal here is not to find how to say a _tide pool _which I have already identified as being 潮だまり.
What I want to do basically is to find a generic noun to describe what is a _tide pool_ in order to define what it is. In short, I want to say something along the line:

「潮だまり」とは水が 浅い<body of water>です。
A tide pool is a shallow body of water.

A colleague gave me that yesterday:
「潮だまり」とはみずが 浅い*水の一環*です。
and that's what I used.

Thank you for your suggestions!


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## Flaminius

Unfortunately, *razovsuki*, *水の一環* does not make much sense.  一環 is "part of" something (that most likely a project or an initiative).  It usually refers to a component of an effort as in: 食中毒対策の一環として、30分毎の手洗いを義務付ける。

Looking at three dictionaries that have 潮溜まり, I realise the entry is defines as a place in two dictionaries and as a static water pool in one:
磯の岩礁上などで潮が引いたあとも海水が残っている場所。 (現代国語例解辞典)
潮が引いたあとも海水が残っている岩礁上のくぼみ。タイド-プール。 (大辞林)
潮が引いたあとに残る岩礁などの水たまり。タイドプール。 (大辞泉)

None of the three uses a Japanese equivalent of "body of water."  The first two focus on the container rather than the content and the last one sublimates the head word on たまり (Static seawater pool is a static water pool that...), which is an accumulated mass of something (here, water) whose components hardly go out or come in from outside.  A body of water can have dynamic exchanges with outside.

The analysis we have just done is not meant to force you to adopt one of the three definitions but to indicate how "body of water" is impossible to form the definition of 潮溜まり in Japanese.  I recommend resorting to the container-rather-than-content approach to achieve a rewrite with least changes to the original.

How about this?
潮溜まりとは、海水が浅く残っている場所です。

Note also that 水 (_mizu_) is sweet water in normal temperature in normal contexts.  It is more natural to make it clear that we are talking about sea water.  For a future reference, hot (potable) water is 湯 or お湯.


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## razovsuki

Thank you for these explanations *Flaminius*.

Indeed, I had a weird feeling about 水の一環, but since the person who gave me that expression is a native (and since it's not the first time I have a weird feeling about a word that turn out to be correct), I used it anyway.

Looking up in three different dictionaries, I guess it is quite enough to see that there ain't any word or set expression for _body of water_ in Japanese.

I think I'll just use the one you give me 海水が浅く残っている場所 which seems fine to me.
Thanks!

And thanks for the clarification about 水, I didn't know it was only refering to sweet water.


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## razovsuki

Hello,

Sorry to get back to that already fed enough thread, but I just ran into 水場 (みずば) in a text, I was wondering if that wasn't what I was looking for in the first place...

I already used what you all gave me for the document that I was working on, so I'm asking just for the sake of completeness 

For the context, here 水場 is used to describe a place to fish.

What do you think about it?

Thank you.


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## Flaminius

Hi,

水場 is a place where water is available.  If it is in a grazing, 水場 is a place where the livestocks are given to drink.  It can be a kitchen in that water should be available in order to cook.



> For the context, here 水場 is used to describe a place to fish.


By all means, please provide the context.  In other words, please quote four sentences from the larger text where the word is used in the sense you mentioned.

Perhaps the discussion is now about 水場 rather than "body of water"—in which case I am glad to split the portion off as a new thread—but 水場 is water with such a strong tie with something terrestrial that it cannot be body of water, which is nothing but pure water.


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