Haded

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Inclined away from the vertical, describing a geological fault plane or vein that leans at an angle
2. Tilted from the upright position, said of a fault or mineral vein dipping at a slant
3. Having sloped off true vertical, as a fault or lode does when it leans into the rock

Etymology: "Haded" is the past tense of "hade," a verb meaning the angle at which a geological fault or vein departs from the vertical. Its etymology is contested, and the most plausible origin is a dialect form of "head," the same word that gives us the top of the body. A Sundby-era argument traces it to Old English "hēafdum," the dative plural of "hēafod," and points to Worcestershire surnames such as "atte Haden" and "atte Haveden" as evidence that the form existed in the local speech of the Middle Ages. The alternative route runs through the Old English "hād," meaning person, condition, rank or nature. That word is related to "-hood," as in "childhood," and it is clearly the source of the suffix, but the source does not connect it securely to the mining sense, so it remains an open possibility rather than an established link.