Hades

The story of the word

One old explanation reads the name as ἀ- plus ἰδεῖν, the unseen one, though modern scholars regard that as folk etymology and the origin as unsettled. Greeks avoided saying the name and called him Πλούτων, the rich one, since wealth comes out of the ground. When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek, Ἅιδης was used for Sheol, which is how a pagan god's name ended up in English Bibles as a place.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → Latin → English

First recorded

16th century