Wednesday, 15 August 2012

أوقيانوس ocean

Etymology of Arabic words: the word أوقيانوس/
قاموس (oukianous/kamous) which means ocean is probably a loan word from greek. The Greek word ωκεανός (okeanos) with the same meaning, comes from the antiquity and at that time it described a very big river without start and end which surrounded the (at that time known ) world. In Turkish they use the word okyanus. Oceanus (Ωκεανός) was one of the ancient Greek deities ( see below picture).

P.S. In addition to above meaning  قاموس  /أوقيانوس
means  "dictionary" and a good explanation for that seems to be the following site:    http://wordswithoutborders.squarespace.com/



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