geography
UK /dʒiˈɒɡɹəfi/ · US /d͡ʒiˈɑɡɹəfi/ noun
Forms geographies
- noun The study of the physical properties of the earth, including how humans affect and are affected by them. “Some amount of basic geography is part of any good curriculum for primary and secondary education.”
- noun (archaic, countable) An atlas or gazetteer.
- noun (archaic, countable) A description of the earth: a treatise or textbook on geography.
- noun Terrain: the physical properties of a region of the earth.
- noun Any subject considered in terms of its physical distribution.
- noun (astronomy) Similar books, studies, or regions concerning other planets.
- noun The physical arrangement of any place, particularly (UK, slang) a house.
- noun (chiefly upper-class UK, euphemistic) The lavatory: a room used for urination and defecation.
Synonyms
loo geo geographics
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”). Doublet of geographia.
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.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The science which treats of the world and its inhabitants; a description of the earth, or a portion of the earth, including its structure, fetures, products, political divisions, and the people by whom it is inhabited.
- noun A treatise on this science. Astronomical, or Mathematical, geography treats of the earth as a planet, of its shape, its size, its lines of latitude and longitude, its zones, and the phenomena due to to the earth's diurnal and annual motions.
Etymology [F. géographie, l. geographia, fr. Gr. Graphic.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “geography”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details