Earth & SkyGreek → English
Antipodes
/ænˈtɪpədiːz/noun
The place on the Earth's surface diametrically opposite a given point, and in British use Australia and New Zealand.
The Greek roots
ἀντί
antí
opposite
πούς
poús
foot
Literally: “with the feet opposite”
The story of the word
The Greeks knew the Earth was a sphere and coined a word for the people who would stand sole to sole with them on the far side. Whether such people could exist became a serious medieval question, since they could not descend from Adam without crossing an impassable ocean: Augustine doubted it, and around 748 a bishop of Salzburg was reported to Rome for teaching that they were there. Almost every antipode of a European city turns out to be open water.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
podiumtripodoctopuspodiatryantiphon
In a sentence
The antipodes of Madrid sit in the sea off New Zealand, which is nobody's idea of a shortcut.