The Word Antarctic Means Opposite the Bear

Ancient Greek sailors looked north and saw the Great Bear in the sky. So the top of the world got its name from the bear, and the bottom of the world got its name from being the other way.

The Greek word for bear is arktos. From it we get arktikos, meaning near the bear, and that is where Arctic comes from. It refers to the northern stars of the Bear constellations, not to polar bears, though that is a happy accident.

Greek geographers also reasoned that there must be something at the far side of the globe. Add anti, meaning opposite, and you have antarktikos: opposite the bear.

They named it long before they saw it

The remarkable part is the timing. People were discussing a southern land opposite the Arctic for around 2,000 years before anybody saw the Antarctic continent. Modern sightings date only from 1820. Antarctica was a logical guess before it was a place on a map.

Pronunciation note

That first c in both words is real, even though plenty of people skip it. Nobody will send the polar police if you do too, but now you know.

We liked this bit of word history so much that we put it on a heavyweight tee.