archipelago

• n. 群島、島; 複数の島からなる海域

接頭辞 arch-, 始まり、主。語源はplanと同じ。エーゲ海を指し、後にエーゲ海の多くの小さな島々を指す。

archipelago

archipelago: [16] Originally, archipelago was a quite specific term – it was the name of the Aegean Sea, the sea between Greece and Turkey. Derivationally, it is a compound formed in Greek from arkhi- ‘chief’ and pélagos ‘sea’ (source of English pelagic [17] and probably related to plain, placate, and please). The term ‘chief sea’ identified the Aegean, as contrasted with all the smaller lagoons, lakes, and inlets to which the word pélagos was also applied.

An ‘Englished’ form of the word, Arch-sea, was in use in the 17th century, and in sailors’ jargon it was often abbreviated to Arches: ‘An island called Augusto near Paros, in the Arches’, Sir T Roe, Negotiations 1626. A leading characteristic of the Aegean Sea is of course that it contains a large number of islands, and from the 16th century onwards we see a strong and steady move towards what is now the word’s main meaning, ‘large group of islands’.

The immediate source of the English word was Italian arcipelago, and some etymologists have speculated that rather than coming directly from Greek arkhipélagos, this may have been a sort of folk-etymological resuscitation of it based on a misunderstanding of Greek Aigaion pelagos ‘Aegean Sea’.
=> pelagic

archipelago (n.)

c. 1500, from Italian arcipelago "the Aegean Sea" (13c.), from Greek arkhipelagos, from arkhi- "chief" (see archon) + pelagos "sea" (see pelagic). The Aegean Sea being full of island chains, the meaning was extended in Italian to "any sea studded with islands." Klein, noting the absence of arkhipelagos in ancient or Medieval Greek (the modern word in Greek is borrowed from Italian) believe it is an Italian mistake for Aigaion pelagos "Aegean Sea" (Medieval Latin Egeopelagus), or influenced by that name.

1. And he spent his senility on an archipelago ，far away from here.

彼は年を取った時、島に住んでいて、ここから離れていた。

2.The project is planned for Balta，one of the archipelago 's main islands.

このプロジェクトは、諸島の主要島の1つであるバルタ島に建設される予定です。

3.The rich life of Svalbard，Norway 's Arctic archipelago ，faces a creeping thaw.

生物資源が豊富なスワールバード諸島、ノルウェーの北極諸島、徐々に解凍の危機に直面している。

4. Koh Larn ( Coral Island ) is the largest of Pattaya's archipelago .

琅島（珊瑚島）はパタヤ諸島の中で最大の島である。

5.A numerical study on the floristics of the Zhoushan Archipelago .

舟山諸島植物地理の数値研究.