med.i.ter.ra.ne.an
adj.（形容词）Surrounded nearly or completely by dry land. Used of large bodies of water, such as lakes or seas.地中海的：几乎被陆地所包围或完全被陆地所包围的。用于指较大的水体，如湖泊或海洋
来源：Latin mediterr3neus [inland] 拉丁语 mediterr3neus [内陆] medius [middle] * see medhyo- medius [中间的] *参见 medhyo- terra [land] * see ters- terra [陆地] *参见 ters-
<注释>When one hears the wordmediterranean, one thinks of a specific placeand perhaps of the great cultures that have surrounded it.But the word can also apply to any large body of water that is surrounded completely or almost completely by dry land.This usage goes back to the use in Late Latin of the Latin wordmediterr3neus, the source of our word,as part of the nameMediterr3neum mare for the mostly landlocked Mediterranean Sea. But Latinmediterr3neus, which is derived from medius, .the middle of, the heart of,. and terra, .land,. in Classical Latin actually meant .remote from the coast, inland..In Late Latin,in referring to the sea,mediterr3neus probably meant originally .in the middle of the earth.rather than .surrounded by land,.for to the Mediterranean cultures without knowledge of much of the earth,the Mediterranean Sea was in the center of the world.Our wordmediterranean is first recorded in English in 594 as the name of the sea.当一个人听说mediterranean 这个词时， 他所想到的是一具体的地方，而且可能还想到了这个地方周围的那些伟大文明。但这个词同样可以用来指任何几乎被陆地所包围或完全被陆地所包围的大水体。这个用法可以追溯到近代拉丁文中mediterraneus 这个词， 就是我们这个词的词源，亦即表绝大部分被陆地所包围的地中海的名称Mediterraneum mare 的组成部分。 但是拉丁词mediterraneus ，从 medius 意为.…中间的，…的中心.派生而来的，以及意为.陆地.的 terra 这个词， 在古典拉丁语中的确切含义为.远离海岸的，内陆的.。在近代拉丁语中，当mediterraneus 这个词用来指地中海时， 其最早的含义可能是.在地球中央的.，而不是.被陆地所包围的.，因为对于缺乏有关地球知识的各地中海文明来说，地中海就是世界的中心。我们这里所说的英语单词mediterranean 最早于594年出现于英语中， 也是用来指地中海
