Tartarus, the infernal regions of ancient Greek mythology. The name was originally used for the deepest region of the world, the lower of the two parts of the underworld, where the gods locked up their enemies. It gradually came to mean the entire underworld.
This is part of the “What are words for?” project. This word scored a six on a three part scale of allusiveness, political oomph and cultural capital (min score 1, max score 3 for each part of the scale). Lots of words did. This is one I clawed from the slushpile on a whim.
marchudson.net 