origin of term doldrums
More. To most people the doldrums refers to a state or period of stagnation or depression, but to sailors it is an equatorial region of the Atlantic Ocean with calms, sudden storms, and light unpredictable winds.For sailing ships, being becalmed in the doldrums was a serious occupational hazard. On the equator there is little wind, mariners called this region the doldrums (after an old English word meaning dull) because they feared being stranded there. 2  The trade winds from both hemispheres converge towards the doldrums and a zone of low pressure, the equatorial trough, that girdles the earth.