- atlas
[atlas 词源字典] - 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[atlas etymology, atlas origin, 英语词源] - latitude
- latitude: [14] Latin lātus meant ‘broad’. From it were derived dīlātāre ‘spread out’ (source of English dilate) and lātitūdō, which English took over as latitude. Its use as a cartographical term stems from the oblong maps of the ancient world, in which distance from north to south represented ‘breadth’ (hence latitude), and distance from east to west represented ‘length’ (hence longitude [16], from Latin longitūdō, a derivative of longus ‘long’).
=> dilate - atlas (n.)
- "collection of maps in a volume," 1636, first in reference to the English translation of "Atlas, sive cosmographicae meditationes de fabrica mundi" (1585) by Flemish geographer Gerhardus Mercator (1512-1594), who might have been the first to use this word in this way. A picture of the Titan Atlas holding up the world appeared on the frontispiece of this and other early map collections.
- kriegspiel (n.)
- war games played with pieces on maps, 1811 as a German word in English, from German Kriegsspiel, literally "war game," from Krieg "war," from Middle High German kriec, "combat," mostly "exertion, effort; opposition, enmity, resistance," from Old High German chreg "stubbornness, defiance, obstinacy," perhaps from PIE *gwere- (2) "heavy" (see grave (adj.)) or cognate with Greek hybris "violence" (see hubris; also see war (n.)). For second element, see spiel (n.). Introduced 1870s as officer training in British army.
- map (n.)
- 1520s, shortening of Middle English mapemounde "map of the world" (late 14c.), and in part from Middle French mappe, shortening of Old French mapemonde, both English and French words from Medieval Latin mappa mundi "map of the world;" first element from Latin mappa "napkin, cloth" (on which maps were drawn), "tablecloth, signal-cloth, flag," said by Quintilian to be of Punic origin (compare Talmudic Hebrew mappa, contraction of Mishnaic menaphah "a fluttering banner, streaming cloth") + Latin mundi "of the world," from mundus "universe, world" (see mundane). Commonly used 17c. in a figurative sense of "epitome; detailed representation." To put (something) on the map "bring it to wide attention" is from 1913.
- North Sea
- Old English norðsæ, usually meaning "the Bristol Channel." The application to the body of water presently so named (late 13c.) is from Dutch (Noordzee, Middle Dutch Noortzee); it lies to the north of Holland, where it was contrasted with the inland Zuider Zee, literally "Southern Sea"). To the Danes, it sometimes was Vesterhavet "West Sea." In English, this had been typically called the "German Sea" or "German Ocean," which follows the Roman name for it, Oceanus Germanicus. "German" persisted on some British maps at least into the 1830s.
- redline (v.)
- also red-line, "mark in red ink," 1820, from red (adj.1) + line (v.). Specific sense of "deny loans to certain neighborhoods based on ethnicity" is from 1973, on notion of lines drawn on maps. Used earlier in reference to insurance company practices (1961) and in World War II military slang in reference to a red line drawn through a soldier's name for some infraction, thus denying his pay. Related: Redlined; redlining.
- solander
- "A protective box made in the form of a book, for holding such items as botanical specimens, maps, papers, etc", Late 18th century: named after Daniel C. Solander (1736–82), Swedish botanist.
