Antarctica

late 14c., antartyk "opposite to the north pole" (adj.), from Old French antartique, from Medieval Latin antarcticus, from Greek antarktikos "opposite the north," from anti- "opposite" (see anti-) + arktikos "arctic" (see arctic).

The first -c- ceased to be pronounced in Medieval Latin and was dropped in Old French. Modern English restores it in spelling from 17c. Also from late 14c. as a noun (with capital A-), "region around the South pole of the sky or the southern regions of the Earth."

late 14c., "persons who dwell on the opposite side of the globe;" from 1540s as "country or region on the opposite side of the earth," from Latin antipodes "those who dwell on the opposite side of the earth," from Greek antipodēs, plural of antipous "with feet opposite (ours)," from anti "opposite" (see anti-) + pous "foot" (from PIE root *ped- "foot").

Yonde in Ethiopia ben the Antipodes, men that haue theyr fete ayenst our fete. [Bartholomew Glanville, "De proprietatibus rerum," c. 1240, translated by John of Trevisa c. 1398]

Belief in them could be counted as a heresy in medieval Europe, when the orthodox supposition was that the whole of the earth was a flat surface. Not to be confused with antiscii "those who live on the same meridian on opposite side of the equator," whose shadows fall at noon in the opposite direction, from Greek anti- + skia "shadow." Also see antoecian. Related: Antipodist.