Ocean

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Dr. Goodword
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Ocean

Postby Dr. Goodword » Wed Aug 21, 2013 11:00 pm

• ocean •

Pronunciation: o-shên • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. The totality of salt water covering three fourths of the Earth's surface. 2. The five designated areas of this expanse: the Antarctic, Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. 3. A deluge, anything ostensibly boundless in quantity or expanse.

Notes: Today's Good Word is common enough and has wandered only a short distance from its original meaning. It comes with an adjective, oceanic, and several nouns. An oceanarium is a seawater aquarium that houses large oceanic inhabitants. An oceanaut is the underwater equivalent of an astronaut, an explorer of the seas as an astronaut explores outer space.

In Play: Earthlings gorge themselves on the ocean's bounty, but we are only beginning to test its power as a source of energy: "Researchers are now working to harness the power of the Gulf Stream for use as an alternative source of ocean energy." Of course, anything excessively large or numerous may be said hyperbolically to be oceanic: "Nada Farthingsworth fell headlong into the ocean of opportunities to lose money in Las Vegas."

Word History: Today's word was taken from Old French occean "ocean" (Modern French océan). French inherited it from Latin oceanus, which borrowed it from Greek okeanos. Okeanos referred to the great river which the Greeks presumed surrounded the disk of the Earth, as opposed to the Mediterranean, the "Middle Earth", sea. We don't know where this word came from, but it was personified in the Roman god Oceanus, son of Uranus and Gaia. It was originally called the ocean sea, translating Latin mare oceanum. Along the way through English the sea was dropped and the adjective became a noun. (An ocean of gratitude is owed Steve Hirsch for suggesting today's very beautiful Good Word.)
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MTC
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Re: Ocean

Postby MTC » Thu Aug 22, 2013 12:15 am

There Is Pleasure In The Pathless Woods

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean – roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin – his control
Stops with the shore; -- upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor does remain
A shadow of man’s ravage, save his own,
When for a moment, like a drop of rain,
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknell’d, uncoffin’d, and unknown.

From Childe Harold, Canto iv, Verse 178
Lord Byron, (George Gordon)
Last edited by MTC on Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

LukeJavan8
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Re: Ocean

Postby LukeJavan8 » Thu Aug 22, 2013 12:59 pm

Nice!
Middle Earth Sea: the Mediterranean - interesting concept.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

Philip Hudson
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Re: Ocean

Postby Philip Hudson » Thu Aug 22, 2013 1:53 pm

Mediterranean means surrounded by land and that is just about what the Mediterranean Sea is.

Lord Byron's, "Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean - roll!" is a particular favorite of mine. Fortunately for him, Byron did not know what the 21st century would bring. People are now able to destroy the oceans. Major ocean pollution began when miners began separating gold from rocks with mercury. The escaped mercury went to the oceans. Now we have to be careful what kind of seafood we eat. The older the fish the more mercury it has absorbed. Albacore tuna is delightful, but I eat it no more. Mankind continues to wreak havoc on land and sea. What happened to the Edenic commission to possess the earth as a steward and not as an exploiter?
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.


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