Members of Roald Amundsen’s Antarctic expedition at the South Pole, December 1911. From left to right: Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting.
12 February 2024
Artic and Antarctic have pretty straightforward etymologies. The only hiccup is that they are borrowed from both French and Latin—English acquired the words in the late fourteenth century, at a time when the literati were conversant in both French and Latin, so it is impossible to untangle the influences of both. The French, in turn, also developed from Latin, and the Latin is borrowed from Greek. Specifically, the English words come from the Middle French artique / antartique and the Latin arcticus / antarcticus. The Latin is from the Greek ἀρκτικός (arcticos), meaning northern (literally it means bear, after the circumpolar constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) and ἀνταρκτικός (antarcticos), opposite to the north.
In classical antiquity, the celestial north pole was slightly closer to Kolchab (Beta Ursae Minoris) than it was to Polaris (Alpha Ursae Minoris), and therefore in the middle of the constellation due to precession of the earth’s axis of rotation, like the wobbling of a top. The entire constellation, rather than an individual star, was taken by navigators as indicating the north. Since then the celestial pole has been slowly edging closer to Polaris and is now less than one degree from it. (In about 12,000 years, the pole star will be Vega, in the constellation Lyra.)
John Trevisa, in his late fourteenth-century translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus’s De proprietatibus rerum (On the Properties of Things) uses the Latin polus articus and polus antarticus to refer to the north and south celestial poles:
And þis spere gooþ about apon twey poles, þe on þerof is by north and goþ neuer doun to vs, and hatte polus articus, þat is þe northe pole. Þe oþir is polus antarticus, þat is þe souþ polus, and is neuer iseie of vs; and þat is for it is fer fro vs, oþir on case þe erþe is between vs and him.
(And this [heavenly] sphere goes about upon two poles, the one thereof is in the north and never comes down to us, and is called polus articus, that is the north pole. The other is polus antarticus, that is the south polus, and is never seen by us; and that is because it is far from us, also it happens the earth is between us and it.)
In contrast, Geoffrey Chaucer, writing his Treatise on the Astrolabe at about the same time, has anglicized the words:
Understond wel that as fer is the heved of Aries or Libra in the equinoxiall fro oure orisonte as is the cenyth fro the pool artik; and as high is the pool artik fro the orisonte as the equinoxiall is fre fro the cenyth. I prove it thus by the latitude of Oxenford: understond wel that the height of oure pool artik fro oure north orisonte is 51 degrees and 50 mynutes; than is the cenyth fro oure pool artik 38 degres and 10 mynutes.
(Know well that the head of Aries or Libra is as far in the celestial equator from our horizon as is the zenith from the arctic pole; and the arctic pole is as high from the horizon as the celestial equator is from the zenith. I demonstrate it thusly with the latitude of Oxford: know well that the height of our arctic pole from our northern horizon is 51 degrees and 50 minutes; then the zenith is 38 degrees and 10 minutes from our arctic pole.)
And:
Understond wel that the latitude of eny place in the region is verrely the space bytwixe the cenyth of hem that dwellen there and the equinoxiall cercle north or south, taking the mesure of the meridional lyne, as shewith in the almykanteras of then astrelabye. And thilke space is as much as the pool artike is high in that same place from the orisonte. And than is the depressioun of the pool antartik, that is to seyn, than is the pool antartik, bynethe the orisonte the same quantite of space neither more ne lesse.
(Know well that the latitude of any place in the region is truly the space between the zenith of those who dwell there and the celestial equator north or south, taking the measure of the meridian line, as is shown in the circles marked [i.e., the almucantars] on the astrolabe. And that space is as great as the arctic pole is high in that same place from the horizon. And then the depression of the antarctic pole, that is say, the antarctic pole is the same quantity of space beneath the horizon, neither more nor less.)
As seen in these early examples, Arctic and Antarctic started out as postmodifiers, that is they generally followed the noun they were modifying. But by the end of the fifteenth century, they were appearing before the noun.
Sources:
Chaucer, Geoffrey. “Treatise on the Astrolabe.” The Riverside Chaucer, Larry D. Benson, ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987, 2.22, 675 and 2.25, 676.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, March 2012, s.v. Arctic, adj. and n., Antarctic, adj. and n.
Trevisa, John. On the Properties of Things: John Trevisa’s Translation of Bartholomæus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum, vol. 1 of 3. M. C. Seymour, ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975, 8.6, 1.457.
Photo credit: Olav Bjaaland, 1911. Wikipedia. Public domain image.