1587: arctic Apr 19, 2019

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The word 'arctic' comes from the Greek word for 'bear', but this has nothing to do with polar bears. Instead, Ursa Major, aka the Big Dipper or literally the Great Bear is the constellation that can be seen northward in the night sky, and the northern part of the word was named for that. Indeed, while nowadays the word arctic described the northern region of the globe, 'arctic' a long time ago used to refer to that part of the night sky.
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