Bering

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The Danish-born navigator Vitus Jonassen who led Russian expeditions to the northeast Pacific ; the sea and strait between Siberia and Alaska that are named after him
2. A Danish navigator in Russian service, Vitus Jonassen, whose surname is honored in the northern Pacific ; a body of water and a narrow passage lying between Siberia and Alaska
3. Vitus Jonassen, the seafarer who explored the northern Pacific for Russia ; the northern sea and strait dividing Siberia from Alaska, both taking their name from him

Etymology: Vitus Bering was a Danish navigator who sailed for the Russian crown under Peter the Great, and the strait that separates Asia from North America carries his name. In 1728 he passed through the narrow channel, but fog kept him from clearly seeing the American coast, so he could not confirm that the two continents were separate. He was sent back on a second expedition, and in 1741 he sighted Alaska, but the voyage ended in disaster. Bering died of scurvy that winter on the island now named after him, in the cold waters off Kamchatka. The strait became "Bering Strait" in later usage, and the name is now the only common way the word is used.