Marco Polo

See also: marco polo, marcopolo, and Marcopolo

English

Alternative forms

(game): marco polo, Marcopolo, marcopolo

Etymology

After Marco Polo (1254–1324), Venetian merchant, whose travels were documented in a book that introduced Europeans to Central Asia and China. The Italian name is from Latin Marcus + Paulus.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈmɑɹkoʊ ˈpoʊloʊ/
Audio (US) (file)

Noun

Marco Polo (countable and uncountable, plural Marco Polos)

(countable) A renowned traveler.
- 2004, Ross E. Dunn, chapter 1, in The adventures of Ibn Battuta, a Muslim traveler of the fourteenth century‎, page 5:
  Ibn Battuta has inevitably been compared with him and has usually taken second prize as "the Marco Polo of the Muslim world" or "the Marco Polo of the tropics"
(uncountable, games) A game played (usually in a swimming pool) where one person runs or swims around blindly yelling "Marco" and everyone else must respond with "Polo" while the person who is "it" tries to locate them.
Coordinate terms: Marco, marco, Polo, polo