Word of the Day: April 10, 2009 ~ climate

climate (klahy-mit) - noun

Climate means " the composite or general prevailing weather conditions of a region, as temperature, air pressure, humidity, precipitation, sunshine, cloudiness, and winds, throughout the year, averaged over a series of years."

The notion underlying climate is that of "sloping" or "leaning." The word comes to us from the Old French word climat or late Latin clima.

The Greek word klima means "the sloping of the earth." When Greek geographers first looked out over the ocean at ships that disappeared below the hill, it appeared that the earth actually sloped away in the direction of their sight.  For this reason, they thought that it was down hill and spoke of this downward slope as klima or klimatisas. These early geographers assigned the earth's surface various zones according to the angle which their slope made with the rays of the sun. There were originally seven of these, but later the system was elaborated so that each hemisphere was divided into 24 bands or "climates" of latitude. This was how the word came to us through the Latin clima or climatis.

**Climatology was first recorded in 1843.

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