Hyperborean

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /hʌɪ.pəˈbɔː.ɹɪən/

Definitions

1. Pertaining to an imagined region of perpetual frost in the extreme north, this term also identifies a people believed to inhabit such a place
2. it signifies traits associated with harsh northern climates, often drawn from ancient lore
3. Referring to a mythical land perpetually covered in ice, this term also denotes the legendary inhabitants thought to reside in this frigid area

Etymology: In Greek myth, the Hyperboreans were a people who lived beyond the North Wind, in a land of perpetual sunshine and mild weather, far from the Greek world. The name, "huperbóreos," combined "huper" ("over" or "beyond") with "boreios" ("northern"), so it literally meant something like "beyond the north." The Greeks placed these people somewhere in the far north, and the idea of a blessed race living past the cold winds gave the name a distinctly paradoxical flavour: the people beyond the frozen north were imagined as living in warmth. The meaning later flipped. Classical writers pictured the Hyperboreans as happy and sun-blessed, but English speakers came to use the word for the opposite: a land of ice and the people imagined to live in it. That reversal is the reason the term now suggests bitter cold rather than a golden northern paradise.

Synonyms: northern, arctic, cold

Antonyms: tropical, warm