Antarctic

• antarctic

From Middle English antartik, antartyk, from Old French antartique, from Latin antarcticus, from Ancient Greek ἀνταρκτικός (antarktikós), from ἀντί (antí, “opposite”) + ἀρκτικός (arktikós, “Arctic”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”). By surface analysis, anti- +‎ Arctic.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ænˈtɑː(k)tɪk/ (see Usage notes)
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ænˈtɑɹ(k)tɪk/ (see Usage notes)

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)tɪk, -ɑː(ɹ)ktɪk

Antarctic (comparative more Antarctic, superlative most Antarctic)

1. Of, from, or pertaining to Antarctica and the south polar regions.
   • 1972, George William Turner, The English Language in Australia and New Zealand, Longman, →ISBN, page 67:

     We are likely to consider Antarctic English as an occupational variety of general English rather than a new regional variety, mainly because men go to work in the Antarctic for a period, intending to return. They are not settlers.

   • 2014 May 12, Suzanne Goldenberg, “Western Antarctic ice sheet collapse has already begun, scientists warn”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Scientists have known for years that the Thwaites glacier is the soft underbelly of the Antarctic ice sheet, and first found that it was unstable decades ago.

2. (figuratively) Opposite, contradictory.
3. (obsolete) Southern.

See Arctic § Usage notes.

Antarctic

2. A continental region, one of the major ecozones of the world, covering the south polar regions, especially those south of the Antarctic Convergence; or, in accordance with the Antarctic Treaty System, the 60th parallel south.

• Antarctic on Wikipedia.Wikipedia