Antipodes
pronunciation
How to pronounce Antipodes in British English:
UK [ænˈtɪpədi:z]
How to pronounce Antipodes in American English:
US [ænˈtɪpəˌdiz]
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- Noun:
- any two places or regions on diametrically opposite sides of the Earth
Word Origin
- antipodes
- antipodes: [16] Greek antípodes meant literally ‘people who have their feet opposite’ – that is, people who live on the other side of the world, and therefore have the soles of their feet ‘facing’ those of people on this side of the world. It was formed from the prefix anti- ‘against, opposite’ and poús ‘foot’ (related to English foot and pedal). English antipodes, borrowed via either French antipodes or late Latin antipodes, originally meant ‘people on the other side of the world’ too, but by the mid 16th century it had come to be used simply for the ‘opposite side of the globe’.=> foot, pedal
- antipodes (n.)
- late 14c., "persons who dwell on the opposite side of the globe;" 1540s as "place on the opposite side of the earth," from Latin antipodes "those who dwell on the opposite side of the earth," from Greek antipodes, plural of antipous "with feet opposite (ours)," from anti- "opposite" (see anti-) + pous "foot," from PIE root *ped- (1) "a foot" (see foot (n.)); thus, people who live on the opposite side of the world. Yonde in Ethiopia ben the Antipodes, men that haue theyr fete ayenst our fete. ["De Proprietatibus Rerum Bartholomeus Anglicus," translated by John of Trevisa, 1398] Not to be confused with antiscii "those who live on the same meridian on opposite side of the equator," whose shadows fall at noon in the opposite direction, from Greek anti- + skia "shadow." Related: Antipodal (adj.); antipodean (1630s, n.; 1650s, adj.).
Example
- 1. The north pole and the south pole are antipodes .
- 2. The antipodes of love is hatred .
- 3. This rabbit had no natural enemies in the antipodes .
- 4. They are our poles , or our antipodes .
- 5. They are our poles , or antipodes .