Antarctica

continent name attributed to Scottish cartographer John George Bartholomew, who used it on a map published in 1887. From antarctic (q.v.). Hypothetical southern continents had been imagined since antiquity; first sighting of Antarctica by Europeans probably was 1820 (Lazarev and Bellingshausen). Also compare antipodes.

Entries linking to antarctica

antarctic (adj.)

late 14c., antartyk "opposite to the north pole" (adj.), also (with capital A-) "region around the South pole" (n.), from Old French antartique, from Medieval Latin antarcticus, from Greek antarktikos "opposite the north," from anti- "opposite" (see anti-) + arktikos "arctic" (see arctic). The first -c- ceased to be pronounced in Medieval Latin and was dropped in Old French. Modern English restores it in spelling from 17c. As a noun, "regions around the South Pole," from c. 1400.

antipodes (n.)

late 14c., "persons who dwell on the opposite side of the globe;" from 1540s as "country or region on the opposite side of the earth," from Latin antipodes "those who dwell on the opposite side of the earth," from Greek antipodes, plural of antipous "with feet opposite (ours)," from anti "opposite" (see anti-) + pous "foot" (from PIE root *ped- "foot").

Yonde in Ethiopia ben the Antipodes, men that haue theyr fete ayenst our fete. [Bartholomew Glanville, "De proprietatibus rerum," c. 1240, translated by John of Trevisa c. 1398]

Belief in them could be counted as a heresy in medieval Europe, when the orthodox supposition was that the whole of the earth was a flat surface. Not to be confused with antiscii "those who live on the same meridian on opposite side of the equator," whose shadows fall at noon in the opposite direction, from Greek anti- + skia "shadow." Also see antoecian. Related: Antipodist.

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Definitions of Antarctica

Antarctica (n.)

an extremely cold continent at the south pole almost entirely below the Antarctic Circle; covered by an ice cap up to 13,000 feet deep;

Synonyms: Antarctic continent

From wordnet.princeton.edu

Dictionary entries near Antarctica

antanaclasis

antaphrodisiac

antarchism

antarchy

antarctic

Antarctica

Antares

ante

ante-

ante meridiem

ant-eater