It’s actually bears. The north is named by the Greeks after the Ursa Major constellation in the north literally “big bear”. So it’s the bear place. While the south is the opposite of the bears.
Happy coincidence it ended up matching polar bear ranges.
sga@lemmings.world 2 days ago
its the other way round for bears i think
MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
Bear without penguins and bear with penguins? I’m no bearologist but I don’t think that’s right.
troybot@midwest.social 2 days ago
So for bears Arctic means land with penguins
WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 2 days ago
There aren’t many bears on Lemmy, though, so we don’t need to use their terminology.
Ooops@feddit.org 2 days ago
But the bear referenced there is not the animal but the constellation…
Arctic = towards the bear, so north
Antarctic = the opposite (=ant[i]) direction