How the Arctic and Antarctic were named
Cartographer 1: This cold continent has huge and super dangerous bears, how do we warn people?
Cartographer 2: Let’s call it ThePlaceWithBears! What about this even colder one on the opposite end?
Cartographer 1: Does it have any bears?
Cartographer 2: Come to think of it, there’s literally no bears here! ThePlaceWithoutBears it is!
Cartographer 1: Boom! Quittin’ time!
funny but Antarctica doesn’t mean “the place with no bears”, it means “not the place with bears”
which imo is funnier
I think it’s “opposite the place with bears”?
Which is ridiculous because it clearly has ant in the name not bear. You’ve got the Arctic and you’ve got the Arctic made for ants.
But I don’t think there are ants there either. Or are they bear-ants? Like really small bears or really big ants?
Yeah, bears like to chew on ants, so the ants kicked them out when they took the place over.
This is actually slightly inaccurate. It wasn’t called that because of no polar bears vs polar bears.
it was called that because the Greek used stars for navigation. Ursa Major (the constellation which is north) is literally called the big bear (Ursa = Bear). So the northern land became the sort of bear land. And the southern land became the not bear land. It’s a funny coincidence that it ended up matching polar bear ranges.
Funny story, Antarctica used to be called Australia until the kangeroos stole the name
Makes sense
The name Australia (pronounced /ˈstreɪliə/ in Australian English)[26] is derived from the Latin Terra Australis Incognita (‘unknown southern land’), a name used for a hypothetical continent in the Southern Hemisphere since ancient times.[27] Several 16th-century cartographers used the word Australia on maps, but not to identify modern Australia
That’s why most cities have a “Main Street”.
And there is this:
Armchair Explorer: I think there’s a big continent in the south, I suggest we call it “Big South Continent” Dutch Explorer: Well I found it and that’s a stupid name, I call it New placewhereicamefrom English Explorer: That’s dumb, I’m going to colonise it and call it New SOUTH placewhereicomefrom
Damned Captain’s hat
Problen is, usually NORTH Place and SOUTH Place are connected
Capt: What do we call this place covered in ice. How about Iceland?
Ship mook: Pretty sure we sailed passed that to get here cap.
Capt: Fine, we shall call it Greenland.
Ship mook: So Greenland will be covered in ice, while Iceland is covered in greenery. Not confusing at all.Iirc, and I might not, but Iceland was called that to keep people away, while Greenland was named as such to trick people into going there.
