The hadal zone, named for the Greek god Hades, refers to the deepest depths of the ocean floor. James Cameron’s deep sea dive drive recently made it down there. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Hadal Zone”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette. Grant, I know how much you love quizzes, so I have one for you.
Oh, please.
What do these words have in common? Tantalizing, erotic, echo, and mercurial.
They all are related to gods.
Yes, yes, they all come from mythology. Tantalus was the god who was deprived of food and water, Herodic from Eros, the god of love. Echo, the nymph who had her voice taken away. And Mercurial from Mercury.
Now, the reason that I’m thinking about words from Greek mythology is that I came across another in a news report recently that I’d never seen before.
Oh, very good. What is it?
Hadal, H-A-D-A-L.
What is that?
Hadal is a word that I came across in a news report about James Cameron’s deep sea dive. Remember that? In March.
Into the Mariana Trench.
Yes, and into the Hadle zone in the Pacific.
So that means like hell or like Hades?
The deepest part, yes.
The ocean’s deepest level below 20,000 feet.
I had no idea that there was this word knocking around since the 1950s that refers to Hades and refers to that particular part of the ocean.
Well, who knew?
That’s fantastic.
Call us with something about language that caught you by surprise or share your questions and stories.
929-9673
Or put anything at all in email to.
