Earth & SkyGreek → English
Boreal
/ˈbɔːriəl/adjective
Of the far north, especially the cold-climate conifer forest that circles the top of the northern hemisphere.
The Greek roots
Βορέας
Boréas
the north wind
Literally: “of the north wind”
Follow a root:Βορέας2 words
The story of the word
Βορέας was the north wind with a face and a temper: a bearded god who carried off the Athenian princess Oreithyia and who, Herodotus says, wrecked Persian ships off Cape Sepias after the Athenians prayed to him. From him came βόρειος, northern, then Latin borealis, then English boreal in the 15th century. The boreal forest, about a third of all forest on earth, is his largest namesake.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 15th century
Same family
hyperboreanaurora borealis
In a sentence
Boreal soils hold more carbon than the trees standing on them.
The species winters in the tropics and breeds in boreal spruce.