Greenland

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A significant landmass situated in the North Atlantic, distinguished by expansive glaciers and rugged terrain
2. An autonomous region of Denmark featuring a diverse ecosystem and a predominantly Indigenous Inuit community
3. An enormous island located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, known for its icy landscape and sparse population ; a largely self-ruling Danish territory inhabited mainly by Inuit people with its own government

Etymology: The name is a famous piece of public relations. According to the Icelandic sagas, Erik the Red, banished from Iceland for manslaughter around 982, sailed west and reached the island's southwestern coast. He is said to have named it Grœnland, "Greenland," reasoning that a attractive name would draw settlers. The island is mostly ice, so the name was a sales pitch rather than a description, and the saga account is the source of the story. The English word is a calque, a word-for-word translation of the Old Norse "Grǿnland." It joins "green," meaning the colour, and "land," so the English version reproduces the Norse parts exactly rather than borrowing a foreign word. The Norse name itself is built from "grǿnn," meaning green, and "land," meaning land.

Synonyms: Greenland