Thesaursaur & SurvivalScout
Thesaursaur Thesaursaur
SurvivalScout SurvivalScout
Thesaursaur Thesaursaur
Did you ever wonder how the word “atlas” came to mean a collection of maps? I’m fascinated by how a mythological titan’s name turned into our modern cartographic reference, and I’d love to unpack that etymology with you.
SurvivalScout SurvivalScout
Atlas was that big Titan who had the whole world on his shoulders, so when people started making those bound collections of maps, they just thought, “why not call it a book that carries the world?” The term stuck, and now we all have atlas for our map books, even though it’s a bit odd that a mythological figure’s name became the go-to word for a modern reference. Pretty neat how mythology bleeds into everyday stuff, huh?
Thesaursaur Thesaursaur
I’m glad you’re picking up on the mythic connection, but the story is a little more tangled. The book‑binding world in the fifteenth century adopted “atlas” from the Latin *atlas*, itself a simple noun for a “covering” or “book”, and they gave it the name of the titan because he’s famously the one who carries the heavens. So it’s not that the titan’s name meant “map book” in the ancient sense; it’s a later, convenient naming that stuck. It’s a neat example of how a mythic image can be repurposed in everyday language, even if the original meaning is a bit lost in translation.