Atlantic Ocean的词源
英文词源
- atlas
- atlas: [16] In Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan who as a punishment for rebelling against the gods was forced to carry the heavens on his shoulders. Hence when the term was first used in English it was applied to a ‘supporter’: ‘I dare commend him to all that know him, as the Atlas of Poetry’, Thomas Nashe on Robert Greene’s Menaphon 1589. In the 16th century it was common to include a picture of Atlas with his onerous burden as a frontispiece in books of maps, and from this arose the habit of referring to such books as atlases (the application is sometimes said to have arisen specifically from such a book produced in the late 16th century by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator (1512–94), published in England in 1636 under the title Atlas).
Atlas also gave his name to the Atlantic ocean. In ancient myth, the heavens were said to be supported on a high mountain in northwestern Africa, represented as, and now named after, the Titan Atlas. In its Greek adjectival form Atlantikós (later Latin Atlanticus) it was applied to the seas immediately to the west of Africa, and gradually to the rest of the ocean as it came within the boundaries of the known world.
=> atlantic - pond (n.)
- c. 1300 (mid-13c. in compounds), "artificially banked body of water," variant of pound "enclosed place" (see pound (n.2)). Applied locally to natural pools and small lakes from late 15c. Jocular reference to "the Atlantic Ocean" dates from 1640s. Pond scum (Spirogyra) is from 1864 (also called frog-spittle and brook-silk. As figurative for "someone extremely repulsive," from 1984.
- Canary Islands
- "A group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean, off the NW coast of Africa, forming an autonomous region of Spain; capital, Las Palmas; population 2,098,593 (2009). The group includes the islands of Tenerife, Gomera, La Palma, Hierro, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, and Lanzarote", From French Canarie, via Spanish from Latin Canaria (insula) '(island) of dogs', from canis 'dog', one of the islands being noted in Roman times for large dogs.
中文词源
大西洋的英文名称为Atlantic Ocean，字面意思就是“Atlas所在的大洋”。Atlas（阿特拉斯）是古希腊神话中的擎天神。他属于泰坦神族，被宙斯带领的奥林巴斯神族打败后，被发配至世界的最西边擎天。古代欧洲人以为大西洋就是世界的最西边，因此便将其称为“阿特拉斯所在的大洋”，即AtlanticOcean。
Atlantic：[ət'læntɪk]n. 大西洋adj. 大西洋的
该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：Atlantic Ocean 词源，Atlantic Ocean 含义。
