mesopelagic

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *me

Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-?

Proto-Indo-European *-dʰe

Proto-Indo-European *médʰi

Proto-Indo-European *-os

Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos

Proto-Hellenic *métsos

Ancient Greek μέσος (mésos)der.

English meso-

English pelagic

English mesopelagic

From meso- + pelagic.

Adjective

mesopelagic (not comparable)

1. (oceanography) Describing the pelagic zone of the ocean between the photic epipelagic and the aphotic bathypelagic zones, characterized by very minimal light.

   Synonym: twilight

   • 2001, James Willard Nybakken, Marine Biology: An Ecological Approach, page 153:

     For those animals living in the mesopelagic zone, where some light downwells from the surface, a visual predator looking up at them could see a silhouette.

Derived terms

• mesopelagic zone

Translations

relating to the zone of the ocean between the photic epipelagic and the aphotic bathypelagic zones

• Finnish: mesopelaginen
• Portuguese: mesopelágico
• Russian: мезопелагиаль (mezopelagialʹ)

Noun

mesopelagic (plural mesopelagics)

1. A mesopelagic fish