Arctic means belonging to the far frozen north. Arctic conditions, an Arctic fox, arctic weather.
Capitalised, the Arctic is the region inside the circle at sixty-six degrees north, and it is ocean surrounded by land, which is the exact reverse of the Antarctic. In lower case, arctic simply means extremely cold, as in arctic conditions in March.
1adjectivearcticBelonging to the far frozen north.
“Polar bears hunt seals on the arctic ice.”
arctic is a quality of place.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂ŕ̥tḱos — bear
Ancient Greek
ἀρκτικός — northern, of the (Great) Bear
Latin
arcticus
ML.
articus
Middle English
artik
Middle French
artique
English
Arctic
English, today
arctic
Built from
Arctic Borrowed from Middle French artique. From Middle English artik, artyk (with the c reintroduced after Latin in the 17th century), from ML. articus, from Latin arcticus, from Ancient Greek ἀρκτικός (“northern, of the (Great) Bear”), from ἄρκτος (“bear, Ursa Major”), from Proto-Indo-European h₂ŕ̥tḱos (“bear”). Cognate with Latin ursus.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Nature & Weather