Etymology

wave washing

Today it means: A form of hunting used by some pods of orcas to drive a prey animal (such as a seal) seeking refuge on a sheet of ice into the water, in which members of the pod swim together at high speed towards the sheet to create a powerful wave that breaks it up. Full definition →

Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

From wave + washing (“move or erode by the force of water”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.