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> On Aug 14, 2014, at 7:49 AM, SomeoneElse <li...@mail.atownsend.org.uk> wrote:
> 
>> On 14/08/2014 12:18, Dan S wrote:
>> 2014-08-14 12:01 GMT+01:00 Friedrich Volkmann <b...@volki.at>:
>>> ...
>>> I am not sure about English terminology. In German, we call natural cavities
>>> "Höhlen" (caves), and artificial cavities "Stollen" (adits?). A straight
>>> "Stollen" with an entrance on each end is a "Tunnel" (tunnel). I think that
>>> the meaning of the English word "tunnel" is just the same as in German. In
>>> that case, tunnels and caves are mutually exclusive.
>> Not in my native opinion, but let's see what other natives think too.
> 
> Sometimes I think that it's a real shame that OSM didn't start in Germany - 
> it'd much easier to be _precise_ about some things.
> 
> The word "adit" is rarely if ever used in common parlance - locally to me 
> (Derbyshire, England) it's usually used to describe mineworking drainage 
> tunnels.  Wikipedia (1) suggests a more general use for horizontal shafts 
> (for e.g. into a drift mine) but I'm not familiar with that usage (and there 
> are many mineworkings very local to me, including one major former drift 
> mine).  It certainly doesn't refer to all artificial cavities.

In my experience (en-US), adits are always associated with mining, almost 
always with drainage--I think drifts and stopes are the proper terms for other 
horizontal passages. (Well, stopes can be large and hollowed-out, but I 
digress.)

While "tunnel" might be used colloquially for anything you can move through 
underground, I think the commonly used and more correct term for a natural 
underground corridor is "passage" or "passageway". (e.g., "unusual features can 
be seen in the passage between the Crystal Room and Room Five".)

-- 
Chris
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