geography
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Etymology
From Middle French géographie, from Latin geōgraphia, from Ancient Greek γεωγραφία (geōgraphía, “a description of the earth”), from γῆ (gê, “earth”) + γράφω (gráphō, “write”).
Use in reference to lavatories derives from the mid-20th century euphemism "show one the geography of the house" in reference to pointing out the toilets.
Pronunciation
Noun
geography (countable and uncountable, plural geographies)
- The study of the physical properties of the earth, including how humans affect and are affected by them.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:geography
- Some amount of basic geography is part of any good curriculum for primary and secondary education.
- 2021, Mark Steyn, “Our Increasingly Unrecognizable Civilization”, in Imprimis, volume 50, number 4/5, Hillsdale College, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3:
- These days, instead of going off behind the bike shed during recess to learn about sex, kids need to sneak behind the bike shed to do a little bit of closeted geography or closeted Latin.
- (archaic, countable) An atlas or gazetteer.
- (archaic, countable) A description of the earth: a treatise or textbook on geography.
- Terrain: the physical properties of a region of the earth.
- 1973, Helen Miller Bailey, Abraham Phineas Nasatir, Latin America: the development of its civilization:
- The geography of the Andes approaches never made transportation easy; routes to Bogota, Quito, La Paz, and Cuzco were so precipitous as to slow down the development of those Spanish cities in the interior.
- Any subject considered in terms of its physical distribution.
- (astronomy) Similar books, studies, or regions concerning other planets.
- The physical arrangement of any place, particularly (UK, slang) a house.
- (chiefly upper-class UK, euphemistic) The lavatory: a room used for urination and defecation.
- 1967 December 21, The Listener, page 802:
- The Business Man Jocular: ‘I say, where's the geography, old son?’
- (figuratively) The relative arrangement of the parts of anything.
- (chiefly business and marketing) A territory: a geographical area as a field of business or market sector.
- We currently operate only in EU countries but we're building prototype services for various geographies.
Synonyms
- (upper-class British slang for lavatory): loo; see also Thesaurus:bathroom
Derived terms
- aerogeography
- anthropogeography
- astrogeography
- biogeography
- cytogeography
- ecogeographic
- ecogeographical
- ecogeography
- ethnogeography
- exogeography
- galactography
- geographer
- geographic
- geographical
- geographism
- geographist
- geographize
- geography fair
- geographylike
- human geography
- hydrogeography
- ichthyogeography
- macrogeography
- microgeography
- mythogeography
- mytho-geography
- neogeography
- neurogeography
- nongeography
- nosogeography
- ornithogeography
- palaeogeography
- paleogeography
- pathogeography
- pedogeography
- phenogeography
- phylogeography
- physical geography
- physiogeography
- phytogeography
- political geography
- psychogeography
- pyrogeography
- sociogeography
- xenogeography
- zoogeography
- zoögeography
Descendants
- ⇒ Malay: geografi
Translations
study of physical structure and inhabitants of the Earth
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See also
References
- Oxford English Dictionary. "geography, n."
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