名詞 mediterranean:

1. the largest inland sea; between Europe and Africa and Asia
   同義詞：Mediterranean Sea

形容詞 mediterranean:

1. of or relating to or characteristic of or located near the Mediterranean Sea

1. The Rhone empties into the Mediterranean.
   羅訥河流入地中海。
2. The Nile discharges (ie flows) into the Mediterranean.
   尼羅河流入地中海。
3. Cyprus, as you know, is an island in the Mediterranean.
   如你所知，塞浦路斯是地中海的島國(guó)。
4. The Suez Canal joins the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
   蘇伊士運(yùn)河連接著地中海和紅海。
5. The straits of Gibraltar are the gate of the Mediterranean.
   直布羅陀海峽是通向地中海的必經(jīng)之路。

med.i.ter.ra.ne.an

adj.（形容詞）
Surrounded nearly or completely by dry land. Used of large bodies of water, such as lakes or seas.
地中海的：幾乎被陸地所包圍或完全被陸地所包圍的。用于指較大的水體，如湖泊或海洋

來(lái)源：
Latin mediterr3neus [inland]
拉丁語(yǔ) mediterr3neus [內(nèi)陸]
medius [middle] * see medhyo-
medius [中間的] *參見(jiàn) medhyo-
terra [land] * see ters-
terra [陸地] *參見(jiàn) ters-

<注釋>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.
當(dāng)一個(gè)人聽(tīng)說(shuō)mediterranean 這個(gè)詞時(shí)， 他所想到的是一具體的地方，而且可能還想到了這個(gè)地方周?chē)哪切﹤ゴ笪拿?。但這個(gè)詞同樣可以用來(lái)指任何幾乎被陸地所包圍或完全被陸地所包圍的大水體。這個(gè)用法可以追溯到近代拉丁文中mediterraneus 這個(gè)詞， 就是我們這個(gè)詞的詞源，亦即表絕大部分被陸地所包圍的地中海的名稱(chēng)Mediterraneum mare 的組成部分。 但是拉丁詞mediterraneus ，從 medius 意為.…中間的，…的中心.派生而來(lái)的，以及意為.陸地.的 terra 這個(gè)詞， 在古典拉丁語(yǔ)中的確切含義為.遠(yuǎn)離海岸的，內(nèi)陸的.。在近代拉丁語(yǔ)中，當(dāng)mediterraneus 這個(gè)詞用來(lái)指地中海時(shí)， 其最早的含義可能是.在地球中央的.，而不是.被陸地所包圍的.，因?yàn)閷?duì)于缺乏有關(guān)地球知識(shí)的各地中海文明來(lái)說(shuō)，地中海就是世界的中心。我們這里所說(shuō)的英語(yǔ)單詞mediterranean 最早于594年出現(xiàn)于英語(yǔ)中， 也是用來(lái)指地中海