Petition to make the names less confusing by renaming the top one to “Bear” and the bottom one to “Twink”.
Are we still talking about poles?
~The answer is yes!~I want you to know I understand the genius of this
“Top” and “Bottom”.
Except it’s nothing to do with that and comes from the Arctic being marked by Ursa Minor & Major in the Northern sky, and Antarctica being the opposite of that.
I should have know I could have just gone to the comments, rather than to Wikipedia… But yes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic#Definition_and_etymology
So there’s no sky bears in Antarctica then?
We have enough with the interdimensional bears. You cant take a shit in piece in here.
Sure but it’s also convenient that there are also no bears in Antarctica or as it shouldve been named Terra Australus but the Australian got that, really should’ve flipped the names when we had the chance.
Soon we can call them both Antarctica
Aww, I was annoyed but overall cheerful, then I read this and now I’m just sad.
I guess you have at least simplified my emotional spectrum, so … Thanks?
sorry! And… you’re welcome i guess?
Chat, is this true?
The arctic isn’t named after polar bears, but after the greek bear constellations which hold the north star. And the Antarctica is named after being the opposite of where the bear constellations are. It’s just a coincidence that the correct one has bears and the correct one doesn’t.
It’s still mind blowing, even if it is a coincidence.
You’re going to name constellations after things that you know well, so the fact that there are a lot of bears relative to other megafauna in northern regions means that in a way the original idea still holds, just not quite as basic.
Some constellations, including the Great Bear, were named long before our languages even existed.
Etymology wise we might say it comes from ancient Greek, but it’s also called Great Bear in languages that have no origin in Greek.
I’m going out on a limb here, but I believe the Great Bear is actually named after a great bear.
Not all cultures though. In Brazil, the Big Dipper is also known as “large anus of the snake”.
i don’t think names in other languages is great evidence, because they could just have adopted the same name regardless, since they presumably adopted the greek constellations as well.
Most cultures used to have their own almost entirely different constellations, the only stuff i think has some overlap is the really obvious simple ones like the southern cross.
The thing is that native American didn’t get the name from Greek, yet, it is still reference to a bear.
which cultures are we talking about here? i kinda don’t feel like going through every single set of native american constellations looking for ones that are bears…
Essa eu não sabia. Isso vem de alguma língua indígena?
The Tucano people are a group of Indigenous South Americans in the northwestern Amazon, along the Vaupés River and the surrounding area. They are mostly in Colombia, but some are in Brazil.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucano_people
That explains why I’ve never heard of them as a Brazilian. That area is so far removed from most of Brazilian cities!
It’s a cool coincidence, though.
I mean, come on. The region called after the constellation with the north star, which aids with finding where the north pole is, has polar bears. Nice!
kinda, not really
arctic, from ancient greek ἀρκτικός did mean “of the bear” originally, probably as a reference to the constellation (cause i don’t think the ancient greeks ever went to the arctic to confirm if there were bears or not)
antarctica doesn’t mean “no bears”, it means “the opposite of the arctic”
the truth is less fun, but i guess you could still view arctic as “bear place” and antarctica as “not the bear place” and that’s still kinda funny i think
What would the equivalent be for “penguins” and “no penguins”?
Linux / Windows
Pinkouinos / antipinkouinos ?
Pink wieners / anti pink wieners?
There used to be a penguin like animal in the north, the Auk. Hunted to extinction.
GREAT auk is called puinguinis, while penguins have various latin names.
It’s like when I see a place named “Westmoreland” I’m like "Ok, so someone thought, “there’s more land west of where I was, and I’m not very creative”.
Wait until you find out about Greenland and Iceland!
Or Newfoundland.
or New York
new york (2) final.docx
new york (2) final.docx
Lol. I would need several extra hands to count the number of times I’ve had people email me documents with filenames like
Copy of new york (2) REVISED-final(1).docxif you need some extra fingers, you can just ask AI to generate some for you ;-)
Vexingly, not pronounced as new+found+land. Apparently it’s something like Newfin-lan, with a stress on the first syllable.
Interesting!
Give Greenland is mostly ice I’m actually curious to know where it’s name comes from
Supposedly, its and Iceland’s discoverers named them thus to trick potential future conquerors into going for the wrong one.
The OG Chad
if you dig deep enough that’s what almost all place names are, and as stupid as it feels it’s a great way to make fantasy place names feel not stupid.
There are a series of cities on the northeastern coast of sweden that all lie near the mouth of a long river, and those cities are quite literally named [Name of the river valley]-stream, while the rivers themselves are named [Name of the river valley]-river. It’s so profoundly stupid and yet no one ever thinks about it at all.
Luleå, on Lule älv. Piteå, on Pite älv. Umeå, on Ume älv. Etc etc…It could be a bastardization of moorland, a type of shrubby biome similar to heath
That the names translated accurately describes the presence or absence of bears is a coincidence.
Interesting. There’s also no penguins in the arctic. But there are penguins in Antarctica. I wonder if the was penguins in the north originally, but the bears ate them all. And the only reason the continue to exist in Antarctica is because there aren’t bears to eat them.
Genus Pinguinus was wiped out by humans, not bears.
It helps you orient yourself if you find yourself in one of these places.
Oh nice you talk to yourself when in public? Me toooo 😃😎
what would be latin based names for penguins an no penguins.
America wants them renamed the 52nd and 53rd states. 🙄
