GC: n
S: NatGeo – https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/north-pole/ (last access: 20 July 2024); NOAA – https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/five-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-north-pole (last access: 20 July 2024).
N: 1. – north (n): Old English norð- (in compounds) “northern, lying to the north” (adj.); norð (adv.) “northwards, to the north, in the north;” from Proto-Germanic *nurtha- (source also of Old Norse norðr, Old Saxon north, Old Frisian north, Middle Dutch nort, Dutch noord, German nord), which is probably an IE word, but of uncertain origin.
The usual word for “north” in the Romance languages ultimately is from English: Old French north (Modern French nord), borrowed from Old English norð; and Italian nord, Spanish norte, borrowed from French.
As a noun, “the northern cardinal point or direction,” late 12c., from the adjective. From c. 1200 as “the north part of Britain, the region beyond the Humber.” Generally, then “a region lying north of some other region.” In U.S. history, “the states and territories north of Maryland and the Ohio River” (by 1796).
The geographical North Pole is attested from mid-15c. (earlier the Arctic pole, late 14c.; north pole in astronomy for “the fixed zenith of the celestial sphere” is from late 14c.).
– pole (n): “northern or southern end of Earth’s axis,” late 14c., from Old French pole or directly from Latin polus “end of an axis;” also “the sky, the heavens” (a sense sometimes used in English from 16c.), from Greek polos “pivot, axis of a sphere, the sky,” from PIE *kwol- “turn round” (PIE *kw- becomes Greek p- before some vowels), from root *kwel- (1) “revolve, move round.”
Originally principally in reference to the celestial sphere and the fixed points about which (by the revolution of the Earth) the stars appear to revolve; also sometimes of the terrestrial poles (poles of this world), the two points on the Earth’s surface which mark the axis of rotation.
2. Also known as: Geographic North Pole.
North Pole, the northern end of Earth’s axis, lying in the Arctic Ocean, about 450 miles (725 km) north of Greenland. This geographic North Pole does not coincide with the magnetic North Pole—to which magnetic compasses point and which in the early 21st century lay north of the Queen Elizabeth Islands of extreme northern Canada at approximately 82°15′ N 112°30′ W (it is steadily migrating northwest)—or with the geomagnetic North Pole, the northern end of Earth’s geomagnetic field (about 79°30′ N 71°30′ W). The geographic pole, located at a point where the ocean depth is about 13,400 feet (4,080 metres) deep and covered with drifting pack ice, experiences six months of complete sunlight and six months of total darkness each year.
3. The American explorer Robert E. Peary claimed to have reached the pole by dog sledge in April 1909, and another American explorer, Richard E. Byrd, claimed to have reached it by airplane on May 9, 1926; the claims of both men were later questioned. Three days after Byrd’s attempt, on May 12, the pole was definitely reached by an international team of Roald Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth, and Umberto Nobile, who traversed the polar region in a dirigible. The first ships to visit the pole were the U.S. nuclear submarines Nautilus (1958) and Skate (1959), the latter surfacing through the ice, and the Soviet icebreaker Arktika was the first surface ship to reach it (1977). Other notable surface expeditions include the first confirmed to reach the pole (1968; via snowmobile), the first to traverse the polar region (1969; Alaska to Svalbard, via dog sled), and the first to travel to the pole and back without resupply (1986; also via dog sled); the last expedition also included the first woman to reach the pole, American Ann Bancroft. After reaching the South Pole on January 11, 1986, the British explorer Robert Swan led an expedition to the North Pole, reaching his destination on May 14, 1989 and thereby becoming the first person to walk to both poles.
S: 1. Etymonline – https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=North+Pole (last access: 20 July 2024). 2&3. EncBrit – https://www.britannica.com/place/North-Pole (last access: 20 July 2024).
SYN: Geographic North Pole
S: EncBrit – https://www.britannica.com/place/North-Pole (last access: 20 July 2024)
