GC: n

S: UN – https://www.un.org/en/conferences/ocean2022/about (last access: 27 April 2025); UNESCO – https://oceanliteracy.unesco.org/ocean-and-seas/ (last access: 27 April 2025).

N: 1. c. 1300, occean, “the vast body of water on the surface of the globe,” from Old French occean “ocean” (12c., Modern French océan), from Latin oceanus, from Greek ōkeanos, the great river or sea surrounding the disk of the Earth (as opposed to the Mediterranean), a word of unknown origin; Beekes suggests it is Pre-Greek. Personified as Oceanus, son of Uranus and Gaia and husband of Tethys.

In early times, when the only known land masses were Eurasia and Africa, the ocean was an endless river that flowed around them. Until c. 1650, commonly ocean sea, translating Latin mare oceanum. Application to individual bodies of water began 14c. (occean Atlantyke, 1387); five of them are usually reckoned, but this is arbitrary. The English word also occasionally was applied to smaller subdivisions, such as German Ocean “North Sea.”

2. ocean, also known as world ocean.

• ocean, continuous body of salt water that is contained in enormous basins on Earth’s surface.
• When viewed from space, the predominance of Earth’s oceans is readily apparent. The oceans and their marginal seas cover nearly 71 percent of Earth’s surface, with an average depth of 3,688 metres (12,100 feet). The exposed land occupies the remaining 29 percent of the planetary surface and has a mean elevation of about 840 metres (approximately 2,755 feet). Actually, all the elevated land could be hidden under the oceans and Earth reduced to a smooth sphere that would be completely covered by a continuous layer of seawater more than 2,600 metres (8,530 feet) deep. This is known as the sphere depth of the oceans and serves to underscore the abundance of water on Earth’s surface.

3. Toponymy; Oceanography: ocean (noun), oceanic (adjective).

• A large body of salt water, global in scale.
• Ex: Atlantic Ocean.
• Phraseology: Ocean floor, ridge; Oceanic crust, plate.

4. Oceanography: world ocean, global ocean, ocean.

5. Collocations: ajective + noun (ocean); verb + noun (ocean); preposition + noun (ocean); phrases.

• ADJ. deep | vast | great | open | tropical, warm | southern.
• VERB + OCEAN cross, sail | explore.
• OCEAN + NOUN depths the darkness of the ocean depths | surface | bed, floor | basin | water | wave a life on the ocean wave (= at sea) | current | voyage | liner.
• PREP. across the ~ trade across the Atlantic Ocean | in the ~ Various toxic substances have been dumped in the ocean.
• PHRASES the bottom/depths/middle/surface of the ocean, the oceans of the world great ships that sailed the oceans of the world.

6. Cultural Interrelation: We can mention the movie Kon-Tiki (2012) by Joachim Rønning & Espen Sandberg.

• In 1947, with five loyal friends in tow, explorer Thor Heyerdahl sails a fragile balsa wood raft along an ancient path some 4,300 miles across the Pacific.

S: 1. Etymonline – https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=ocean (last access: 27 April 2025). 2. EncBrit – https://www.britannica.com/science/ocean (last access: 27 April 2025). 3 & 4. TERMIUM PLUS (last access: 27 April 2025). 5. OCD – https://www.freecollocation.com/search?word=ocean (last access: 27 April 2025). 6. IMDb – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1613750/?ref_=ls_t_5 (last access: 27 April 2025).

SYN:
S:

CR: albedo, bathymetry, beaching place, buccaneer, El Niño, exorheic, fish, freebooter, grounding, hurricane, Irukandji syndrome, jellyfish, La Niña, letter of marque, microplastic, mirage, North Pole, ocean thermal energy conversion, ocean wave energy, oscillating water column, penguin, piracy, pirate, privateer, Saffir-Simpson scale, scurvy, sea, shipwreck, South Pole, spill, storm, thunderstorm, tidal wave, tsunami, turtle, typhoon, wreck.