batho-, bathy-

Sensibility to stimuli, such as pain, movement, and pressure which activates receptors below the body surface but not in the viscera or the internal organs, especially those in the abdominal cavity: Any bathesthesia includes deep feelings of the joint sensibilities (arthresthesias) and muscle senses (myesthesias).

Sheila had such acute bathesthesia that she could feel a mosquito land on her arm.

A shift of the absorption spectrum toward lower frequencies (longer wavelengths) with deepening of color from yellow to red to black: Janet learned more about bathochromy in her chemistry class regarding molecular spectroscopy.

1. A large mass of intrusive igneous rock believed to have solidified deep within the earth: Granite is one good example of batholite, also termed "batholith", which was formed by an intrusion of magma at extreme depth and having been exposed after erosion.
2. A large emplacement of igneous intrusive (also called plutonic) rock that forms from cooled magma deep in the earth's crust: Batholites, or batholiths, are composed of multiple masses, or "plutons", of magma that moved toward the surface from a zone of partial melting at the base of the earth's crust.

While moving, these plutons of relatively buoyant magma are called plutonic diapirs. Diapirs commonly intrude vertically upward along fractures or zones of structural weakness through more dense overlying rocks because of density contrast between a less dense, lower rock mass and overlying denser rocks.

Because the diapirs are liquefied and very hot, they tend to rise through the surrounding country rock, pushing it aside and partially melting it.

Most diapirs do not reach the surface to form volcanoes, but instead slow down, cool and usually solidify five to thirty kilometers underground as plutons. Therefore the use of the word "pluton" is in reference to the Roman god of the underworld, Pluto.

A large mass of igneous rock that has melted and intruded surrounding strata at great depths: This huge amount of intrusive batholiths is believed to have solidified deep within the earth and to have formed the lowest part of mountain ranges.

An instrument for measuring the depth of a body of water: In her oceanography class at college, Susan learned that a bathometer was used to ascertain the depth of the sea, but it is rarely used in the present time.

A sounding line was used previously with a bathymeter, but it proved to be quite difficult and a time-consuming procedure.

The bathometer does not require a line to extend to the bottom because it measures the difference in the gravitational effect of the water surface and of solid ground.

1. Having a deep or myopic eye.
2. Having a larger than normal ocular axial length.

An organism that thrives in deep water: A fish that habitats the very abysmal regions of the sea can be termed to be a bathophile.

An excessive fear of depths or of descending into depths: Bathophobia occurs when a person looks down into a well or when he or she is going down into a body of water in a submarine.

Bathophobia includes the terror of losing control of oneself while in a high place, or of falling from a height and thus being killed.

The meaning of bathophobia does not involve an intense dislike of bathing because in this case, batho or bathos means "deep", and neither "bath" nor "bathing".

1. The sudden shift in speech or writing from a lofty level to a lower commonplace one, for contrast or humor, or overdone sentiment that has become melodramatic or maudlin: The actors played the old tear-jerker for bathos and were rewarded with many laughs.
2. Etymology: literally "depth", but figuratively "dull" or "inane", generally to a ludicrous degree.

The term has been misused with pathos, which is something entirely different: the Greek pathos, like the Latin passio, means "suffering", and a pathetic work is one which depicts, or elicits, suffering.

When a captious reviewer denounces a comic's "pathetic" attempts to be funny, what she or he really means is "bathetic".

1.Regarding an ample bosom with a deep cleavage: The famous film star was chosen for the role in the production because of her bathukolpian, or also spelled "bathykolpian".
2. Etymology: "Big-breasted" from about 1825, from the Greek element bathykolpos; literally, "deep-bosomed" from bathys, "deep" plus kolpos, "breast".

1. A reference to the biogeographic region of the ocean bottom between the sublittoral and abyssal zones: Small slender-shaped fish called "ipnops" thrive close to the bottom of the ocean floor in the bathyal region.
2. Pertaining to the environment of deposition and the organisms of the ocean between depths of 200 meters [656 feet], the edge of the continental shelf, and 2,000 meters [6,560 feet]: The average temperature of the bathyal zone is around 4°C (39°F.) and is so deep that sunlight does not penetrate down that far.

The bathyal environment is intermediate between the "neritic"* environment and the "abyss"*.

* "Neritic" is a description of the environment and conditions of the marine zone between low tide and the edge of the continental shelf, a depth of roughly 200 meters [656 feet]. A neritic environment supports marine organisms, also described as neritic, that are capable of surviving in shallow water with moderate exposure to sunlight.

* The "abyss", or the abyssal, is described as the depositional environment of the deepest area of the ocean basins. The depositional energy is low, the abyssal plain is flat and nearly horizontal, and fine-grained sediments are deposited slowly by waning turbidity currents or from suspension in the water. The water is thousands of meters deep (about 2,000 meters) [about 6,520 feet], so the water is cold and sunlight is minimal, if it exists at all.

The biogeographic realm of the ocean depths between 100 and 1,000 fathoms (180 and 1,800 meters): The bathyal zone describes the steep descent of the bottom of the ocean from the continental shelf to the abyssal zone.

The loss of deep sensations in the body: After the accident, the nerve damage to Harriet's leg resulted in bathyanesthesia.

When people experience bathyanesthesia, it is important that they have an escort at all times because they are in more danger of being injured without being aware of it since they can't feel normal sensations.

Pertaining to an organism that dwells in deepest zone of a sea: In her biology class, Mary was very interested in those creatures that survived only in the bathetic areas of the ocean.

A name given by Professor Thomas Huxley to a gelatinous substance found in mud dredged from the Atlantic and preserved in alcohol.

He supposed that it consisted of free living protoplasm, covering a large part of the ocean bed. It is now known that the substance is of chemical, not of organic, origin.

More details about bathybius

"Bathybius haeckeli" was a substance that British biologist Thomas Henry Huxley discovered and initially believed to be a form of primordial matter, a source of all organic life. He later admitted his mistake when it proved to be just the product of a chemical process.

Huxley thought he had discovered a new organic substance and named it "Bathybius haeckeli", in honor of the German philosopher Ernst Haeckel. Haeckel had theorized about "Urschleim", original slime, a protoplasm from which it was believed that all of life had originated. Huxley thought Bathybius could be that protoplasm, a missing link (in modern terms) between inorganic matter and organic life.

In 1868, Huxley studied an old sample of mud from the Atlantic seafloor taken in 1857. When he first examined it, he found only protozoan cells and placed the sample into a jar of alcohol to preserve it. Then he noticed that the sample contained an albuminous slime that appeared to be criss-crossed with veins.