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atlas

Etymology and origin of the English word atlas

History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈætləs/[1]

Etymology

It comes from the name of Ancient Greek Ἄτλας (Átlās), a Titan of Greek mythology who held up the heavens,[2][3][4] via Latin Atlās.[2][4] The Greek name is traditionally explained as “the bearer”, from the stem of τλῆναι (tlēnai) “to bear”, but Beekes thinks it may be a reshaping of Berber adrar “mountain”.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who bears a great burden, a chief support (1589).[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The sense “a volume of maps” first appears in English in 1636,[3][5][2] in the title of the translation of Mercator's Atlas (1585).[3] It is said to come from pictures of Atlas holding up the world at the front of early map collections.[5][2][3][6] The sense later widened to any volume of plates or tables (1875),[5] and anatomists named the topmost vertebra, which supports the skull, after the Titan (1699).[5][7]

Timeline

  • 1589 – one who sustains a great burden.[5][2]
  • 1636 – a collection of maps in a volume.[5][3][2]
  • 1699 – the first cervical vertebra.[5]
  • 1712 – a large size of drawing paper.[5]
  • 1875 – a volume of plates or tables on any subject.[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A bound collection of maps.
  2. A volume of tables, charts or plates illustrating a subject.
  3. (anatomy) The first vertebra of the neck, which supports the skull.
  4. (architecture) A male figure used as a supporting column.
  5. A large size of drawing paper.
  • Atlantic

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Cite this entry

“Atlas.” Etymologically, 10 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/atlas. Accessed 10 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on .