Funnily enough, “Antarctica” is literally “not bear land”. “Arktos” is an old Greek word for bear. The constellation Ursa Major (itself meaning “great bear” in Latin) is in the northern part of the sky, so the Greeks named the north after it, the Arctic. Some Greek philosophers theorised that the north pole must have a counterpart in the south, and since the land around the north pole was the Arctic they named it the Anti-Arctic, or Antarctic. How correct they accidentally were would not be discovered for about 2,000 years.
Funnily enough, “Antarctica” is literally “not bear land”. “Arktos” is an old Greek word for bear. The constellation Ursa Major (itself meaning “great bear” in Latin) is in the northern part of the sky, so the Greeks named the north after it, the Arctic. Some Greek philosophers theorised that the north pole must have a counterpart in the south, and since the land around the north pole was the Arctic they named it the Anti-Arctic, or Antarctic. How correct they accidentally were would not be discovered for about 2,000 years.