Origin and history of antarctic

late 14c., artik, "of or pertaining to the north pole of the heavens," from Old French artique and directly from Medieval Latin articus, from Latin arcticus, from Greek arktikos "of the north," literally "of the (constellation) Bear," from arktos "bear;" also "Ursa Major; the region of the north," the Bear being the best-known northern circumpolar constellation.

This is from *rkto-, the usual Indo-European root for "bear" (source also of Avestan aresho, Armenian arj, Albanian ari, Latin ursus, Welsh arth). For speculation on why Germanic lost the word, see bear (n.). The -c- was restored from 1550s.

In Middle English typically of the heavens; in reference to the earth it is attested from early 15c. as "northern;" from 1660s as "cold, frigid." As a noun, with capital A-, "the northern polar regions," from 1560s.

continent name attributed to Scottish cartographer John George Bartholomew, who used it on a map published in 1887. From antarctic (q.v.). Hypothetical southern continents had been imagined since antiquity; the first sighting of Antarctica by Europeans probably was in 1820 (Lazarev and Bellingshausen). Also compare antipodes.

word-forming element of Greek origin meaning "against, opposed to, opposite of, instead," shortened to ant- before vowels and -h-, from Old French anti- and directly from Latin anti-, from Greek anti (prep.) "over, against, opposite; instead, in the place of; as good as; at the price of; for the sake of; compared with; in opposition to; in return; counter-," from PIE *anti "against," also "in front of, before" (from root *ant- "front, forehead," with derivatives meaning "in front of, before"), which became anti- in Italian (hence antipasto) and French.

It is cognate with Sanskrit anti "over, against," and Old English and- (the first element in answer). A common compounding element in Greek, in some combinations it became anth- for euphonic reasons. It appears in some words in Middle English but was not commonly used in English word formations until modern times. In a few English words (anticipate, antique) it represents Latin ante.

In noun compounds where it has the sense of "opposed to, opposite" (Antichrist, anti-communist) the accent remains on the anti-; in adjectives where it retains its old prepositional sense "against, opposed to," the accent remains on the other element (anti-Christian, anti-slavery).