archipelago

archipelago

English

An archipelago from above.

Etymology

From Italian arcipelago, formed on the basis of Ancient Greek ἀρχι- (arkhi-, “main”) + πέλαγος (pélagos, “sea”), a designation for the Aegean Sea. The Aegean Sea is a sea with many islands; the term Arcipelago, originally a proper noun referring to the Aegean Sea, was first generalized to a common noun for any sea with many islands, and then to the islands in such a sea.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɑːkɪˈpɛləɡəʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌɑɹkɪˈpɛləˌɡoʊ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ar‧chi‧pe‧la‧go

Noun

archipelago (plural archipelagos or archipelagoes)

1. (now rare) The Aegean Sea.
   • 1791, Charlotte Smith, Celestina, Broadview 2004, p. 413:

     [I]n his imagination he had settled his route, through Holland and France to Sicily, which he had long wished to see, and from thence to the Archipelago […] .

2. (collective) A group of islands.
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299:

     For many years past the whaleship has been the pioneer in ferreting out the remotest and least known parts of the earth. She has explored seas and archipelagoes which had no chart, where no Cook or Vancouver had ever sailed.

3. (by extension) Something scattered around like an archipelago.

   The Gulag Archipelago

Derived terms

• archipelagic
• archipelago big-eyed treefrog

 

Translations

group of islands

Afrikaans: argipel Albanian: arkipelag (sq) Arabic: أَرْخَبِيل‎ m (ʾarḵabīl) Aragonese: archipielago Armenian: արշիպելագ (hy) (aršipelag), կղզիախումբ (kłziaxumb) (rare) Assamese: দ্বীপ-পুঞ্জ (dip-puñzo) Asturian: archipiélagu m Azerbaijani: arxipelaq (az) Basque: uhartedi Belarusian: архіпела́г m (arxipjeláh) Bengali: দ্বীপপুঞ্জ (bn) (dẇīpôpuñjô) Bikol Central: arkipelago Breton: enezeg (br) Bulgarian: архипела́г m (arhipelág) Catalan: arxipèlag (ca) m Chavacano: arquipelago Chinese: Mandarin: 群島／群岛 (zh) (qúndǎo), 列島／列岛 (zh) (lièdǎo) Corsican: arcipelagu m Czech: souostroví (cs) n Danish: øgruppe c Dutch: archipel (nl) m, eilandengroep (nl) m Esperanto: arĥipelago, arkipelago (eo) (modern spelling), insularo Estonian: saarestik Faroese: oyggjaflokkur (fo) m, oyggjahav n Finnish: saaristo (fi), saariryhmä (fi) French: archipel (fr) m Friulian: arcipelac m Galician: arquipélago (gl) m Georgian: არქიპელაგი (arkiṗelagi) German: Archipel (de) m, Inselgruppe (de) f, Inselhaufen m, Inselansammlung f (rare) Greek: αρχιπέλαγος (el) n (archipélagos) Hebrew: אַרְכִיפֶּלָג‎ (he) m (arkhipélag) Hindi: द्वीपसमूह (dvīpasmūh), द्वीप-पुंज (dvīp-puñj) Hungarian: szigetvilág (hu), szigetcsoport (hu) Icelandic: eyjaklasi Ido: arkipelago (io), insularo (io) Igbo: ọ̀tú àgwà Ilocano: purpúro Indonesian: kepulauan (id) Irish: oileánra m Italian: arcipelago (it) m Japanese: 列島 (ja) (れっとう, rettō), 群島 (ja) (ぐんとう, guntō) Javanese: kapuloan (jv) Kashubian: òstrowina Kazakh: топарал (toparal) Korean: 군도 (ko) (gundo), 열도 (ko) (yeoldo) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: arxîpel Latin: archipelagus Latvian: arhipelāgs Lithuanian: salynas m, archipelagas m Low German: German Low German: Archipel m Luxembourgish: Archipel Macedonian: архипелаг m (arhipelag) Malay: kepulauan (ms) Maltese: arċipelagu m Manx: ellanragh m, mooirinshyn pl Maori: huinga motu Mongolian: олтриг (mn) (oltrig) Neapolitan: arcepelaco m Ngazidja Comorian: masiwa class 6 Norwegian: Bokmål: arkipel n, øygruppe m or f, skjærgård m Nynorsk: arkipel n, øygard m, øygruppe f Occitan: archipèla (oc) Papiamentu: archipelago Persian: مجمع‌الجزایر‎ (majma'-ol-jazâyer) Piedmontese: arsipélagh Polish: archipelag (pl) m Portuguese: arquipélago (pt) m Romanian: arhipelag (ro) n Russian: архипела́г (ru) m (arxipelág) Scottish Gaelic: innis-mhuir f Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: архипелаг m, острвље n Roman: arhipelag (sh) m, ostrvlje (sh) n, otočje (sh) n Sicilian: arcipèlacu (scn) Slovak: súostrovie n Slovene: arhipelag (sl) m, otočje n Spanish: archipiélago (es) m Swahili: funguvisiwa Swedish: skärgård (sv) c, ögrupp (sv) c, arkipelag (sv) c Tagalog: kapuluan Thai: หมู่เกาะ (mùu-gɔ̀) Tongan: ʻotu motu Turkish: aral (tr), takımada (tr), cezzar Ukrainian: архіпела́г (uk) m (arxipeláh) Uzbek: arxipelag (uz) Venetian: arcipełago Vietnamese: quần đảo (vi) Volapük: ragipelag (vo), nisulem, argipelag (obsolete) Walloon: iyreye (wa) f, årtchipel m Welsh: ynysfor West Frisian: arsjipel

See also

• island chain

Further reading

• archipelago on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Portuguese

Noun

archipelago m (plural archipelagos)

1. Obsolete spelling of arquipélago (used in Portugal until September 1911 and in Brazil until the 1940s).