ground zero
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌɡɹaʊnd ˈzɪəɹəʊ/
ipa: /ˌɡɹaʊnd ˈzɪɚ(ˌ)oʊ/
ipa: /-ˈzi(ˌ)ɹoʊ/
rhymes: -ɪəɹəʊ
Forms: form: ground zeroes
form: ground-zero
Etymology: From ground + zero, first attested in a June 1946 a report by the United States Strategic Bombing Survey on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, on August 6 and 9, 1945, during World War II. “Zero” was used as the code name for the location of the Trinity atomic bomb test – the first detonation of a nuclear weapon – in New Mexico, USA, on July 16, 1945.
Senses: examples: text: Some of the construction details (reinforcing rod splices, for example) [in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan] were often poor, and much of the concrete was definitely weak; thus some reinforced concrete buildings collapsed and suffered structural damage when within 2,000 feet of ground zero, and some internal wall paneling was demolished even up to 3,800 feet.
ref: 1946 June 19, U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, “The Effects of the Atomic Bombings”, in The Effects of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, [s.l.]: Chairman’s Office, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 Aug 2021, page 5:
text: It's Christmas at ground zero / The button has been pressed / The radio / Just let us know / That this is not a test
ref: 1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic, “Christmas at Ground Zero”, in Polka Party!:
glosses: Originally, the point on the land or water surface below which a nuclear bomb detonates in the air; now also the point on such a surface at or above the detonation.
examples: text: "This is ground zero," she said. "If regulators don't adopt a zero tolerance for violations of standards then what we will have are places that are going to have unacceptable environmental damage."
ref: 2011 April 21, Suzanne Goldenberg, quoting Jan Jarrett, “Pennsylvania: the ‘ground zero’ of the US shale gas drilling boom”, in The Guardian:
text: Florida has been called a “ground zero” for climate change in America, as the state is expected to face the highest temperature rise in the southeast; […]
ref: 2019 October 17, Matt Stieb, “Florida GOP Regrets ‘Lost’ Decade on Climate Change”, in New York Magazine:
text: For Larson and other activists, Kamilo Beach has become ground zero of the crisis.
ref: 2020 January 10, Liz Barney, Michelle Broder Van Dyke, “Welcome to Hawaii's ‘plastic beach’, one of the world's dirtiest places”, in The Guardian:
text: The two West Virginia local authorities accuse the distributors of turning Cabell county, with a population of just 90,000, into the “ground zero of the opioid epidemic sweeping the nation”, by flooding the area with nearly 100m opioid pills over a decade.
ref: 2021 May 3, Chris McGreal, “‘Ground zero of the opioid epidemic’: West Virginia puts drug giants on trial”, in The Guardian:
glosses: The location of any disaster or violent assault.
examples: text: James Meredith's forced admission was a milestone in upending the old order in America's most segregated state, a kind of race relations ground zero.
ref: 1997 May 4, Adam Nossiter, “Ground Zero”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: Less than two years into the job, she has transformed Washington into ground zero of America’s education reform movement.
ref: 2009 March 21, Nicholas Kristof, “Education’s Ground Zero”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
glosses: The point at which something begins.
Hypernyms: epicenter
epicentre
hypocenter
hypocentre
Derived terms: Ground Zero