Hyperborean
/ˌhaɪpərˈbɔːriən/adjective
Of the extreme north, or of the mythical people said to live past the source of the north wind.
The Greek roots
Literally: “beyond the north wind”
The story of the word
ὑπέρ, beyond, plus Βορέας: those who live past the place the north wind comes from, and therefore out of its reach entirely. Herodotus reports their offerings arriving on Delos wrapped in wheat straw, handed from people to people across Europe, and says plainly that he doubts the story. Apollo was supposed to spend his winters with them in unbroken sunshine, which makes this the earliest warm-land-beyond-the-ice in European writing.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1590s
Same family
In a sentence
He wrote about the expedition in a hyperborean register, all ice and silence.
The Hyperboreans lived, so the story goes, for a thousand years and died by choosing to.