英语科普|四大洋用英文怎么说？

时间：2017-11-24 09:24:42  来源：http://www.pinghe.com  作者：Frank

让我们一起看一看世界四大洋的语言根源吧。首先，表示海洋的词汇ocean是怎么来的呢?这个词汇来自拉丁语中的希腊词汇ōkeanos，这个词汇的含义是“围绕着地球的伟大河流”。Ocean这个词最初表示整个水体，古希腊人认为大陆是单片的土地，水体围绕着整个大陆。后来，ocean被用来与内陆海sea作区分,如地中海(字面上为“在土地的中间”)。

Indian Ocean-印度洋

As (linguistically) it’s the least interesting ocean: it is named simply because it is to the south of India.

这是最普通的海洋的命名，仅仅因为它在印度南面。

Pacific Ocean-太平洋

If you’re wondering whether there’s a link between Pacific and pacify, then you’re not wrong. The name of the ocean was originally a specific use of pacific, meaning ‘peaceful’ or ‘characterized by calmness’. Pacific Ocean derives from Mar Pacifico, the name given in Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish to the body of water in allusion to the calm seas experienced by Ferdinand Magellan on first reaching it in 1520.

如果你想知道太平洋和pacify（安抚/平静）之间的是否有关联,那么你的猜测是正确的。海洋的名字最初是pacific的特定使用,表示“和平”或“以冷静为特点”。Pacific Ocean表达来源于词汇Mar Pacifico,该词汇由葡萄牙,意大利和西班牙兴起，原因是费迪南德麦哲伦于1520年首次航线中发现它的水面较为平静。

Atlantic Ocean-大西洋

Atlantic comes from the Greek Atlantikos, from Atlas, the Titan of Greek mythology who supported the heavens with his great strength. (His image appeared as a frontispiece to early collections of maps in a volume, leading to the modern use of the word atlas.) The term Atlantic originally referred to the Atlas Mountains in North Africa, and hence to the sea near the west African coast, and was later extended to refer to the whole ocean.

大西洋来源于希腊词Atlantikos,来自阿特拉斯,希腊神话中凭借自己的神力撑起天空的巨人。 (他的形象出现在早期图集的卷首插画中,导致现代使用atlas这个词。)Atlantic一词最初指的是北非的阿特拉斯山脉,因此也指西非海岸附近的海域,后来atlantic扩展到指整个海洋。

Arctic Ocean-北冰洋

The Arctic Ocean, unsurprisingly, surrounds the Arctic; that is, the regions around the North Pole. Arctic conceals its origins rather more successfully; it comes from the Greek arktos, meaning ‘bear’ – and also ‘Ursa Major’ and ‘pole star’. The connection between bear and star comes from the story in Greek mythology that the nymph Callisto was turned into a bear and placed as a constellation in the heavens by Zeus.

北冰洋,不出所料,围绕着北极圈（北极圈指北极周围的地区）。Arctic这个词更成功地隐藏它的起源,它来自希腊词arktos,意思是“熊”,也可表示“大熊星座”和“北极星”。熊和星之间的联系来源于希腊神话中的,女神卡利斯托被宙斯变成了一只熊在天空之变成一座星座。