讓我們一起看一看世界五大洋的語言根源吧。首先，表示海洋的詞匯ocean是怎么來的呢?這個詞匯來自拉丁語中的希臘詞匯ōkeanos，這個詞匯的含義是“圍繞著地球的偉大河流”。Ocean這個詞最初表示整個水體，古希臘人認為大陸是單片的土地，水體圍繞著整個大陸。后來，ocean被用來與內陸海sea作區(qū)分,如地中海(字面上為“在土地的中間”)。

　　Indian Ocean

　　印度洋

　　As (linguistically) it’s the least interesting ocean: it is named simply because it is to the south of India.

　　這是最普通的海洋的命名，僅僅因為它在印度南面。

　　Pacific Ocean

　　太平洋

　　If you’re wondering whether there’s a link between Pacific and pacify, then you’re not wrong. The name of the ocean was originally a specific use of pacific, meaning ‘peaceful’ or ‘characterized by calmness’. Pacific Ocean derives from Mar Pacifico, the name given in Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish to the body of water in allusion to the calm seas experienced by Ferdinand Magellan on first reaching it in 1520.

　　如果你想知道太平洋和pacify（安撫/平靜）之間的是否有關聯(lián),那么你的猜測是正確的。海洋的名字最初是pacific的特定使用,表示“和平”或“以冷靜為特點”。Pacific Ocean表達來源于詞匯Mar Pacifico,該詞匯由葡萄牙,意大利和西班牙興起，原因是費迪南德麥哲倫于1520年首次航線中發(fā)現(xiàn)它的水面較為平靜。

　　Atlantic Ocean

　　大西洋

　　Atlantic comes from the Greek Atlantikos, from Atlas, the Titan of Greek mythology who supported the heavens with his great strength. (His image appeared as a frontispiece to early collections of maps in a volume, leading to the modern use of the word atlas.) The term Atlantic originally referred to the Atlas Mountains in North Africa, and hence to the sea near the west African coast, and was later extended to refer to the whole ocean.

　　大西洋來源于希臘詞Atlantikos,來自阿特拉斯,希臘神話中憑借自己的神力撐起天空的巨人。 (他的形象出現(xiàn)在早期圖集的卷首插畫中,導致現(xiàn)代使用atlas這個詞。)Atlantic一詞最初指的是北非的阿特拉斯山脈,因此也指西非海岸附近的海域,后來atlantic擴展到指整個海洋。

　　Arctic Ocean

　　北冰洋

　　The Arctic Ocean, unsurprisingly, surrounds the Arctic; that is, the regions around the North Pole. Arctic conceals its origins rather more successfully; it comes from the Greek arktos, meaning ‘bear’ – and also ‘Ursa Major’ and ‘pole star’. The connection between bear and star comes from the story in Greek mythology that the nymph Callisto was turned into a bear and placed as a constellation in the heavens by Zeus.

　　北冰洋,不出所料,圍繞著北極圈（北極圈指北極周圍的地區(qū)）。Arctic這個詞更成功地隱藏它的起源,它來自希臘詞arktos,意思是“熊”,也可表示“大熊星座”和“北極星”。熊和星之間的聯(lián)系來源于希臘神話中的,女神卡利斯托被宙斯變成了一只熊在天空之變成一座星座。

　　Antarctic Ocean

　　南冰洋

　　The Antarctic Ocean, also known as the Southern Ocean, is defined in opposition to the Arctic: Antarctic simply means ‘opposite to the Arctic’. Both Antarctic Ocean and Southern Ocean are in common use as terms, and were originally used in reference to this body of water around the same time, albeit different centuries. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) currently dates Antarctic Ocean to 1699 and Southern Ocean to 1702.

　　南冰洋,也被稱為Southern Ocean（南大洋）,這個詞產生源于與Arctic（北極）相對:antarctic僅僅表示“北極圈的反方向”。Antarctic Ocean和Southern Ocea都是常用的表達,最初用于表示海洋的時間盡管在不同的世紀，但大致相同,。《牛津英語詞典》(OED)目前追溯到的Antarctic Ocean的使用在1699，Southern Ocean可追溯到1702年。