Why is there an 'ant' in an tarctica?

Answer 1

People knew about the Arctic long before they knew about the continent at the south pole. They called the region of the North Pole the Arctic, from the Latin Arcticus from the Greek Arktos, meaning a bear, and Arkticos, Greek for "near the bear". The reason for the bear in the name was that the northern part of the sky is where the constellations of the Great Bear and the Little Bear are to be seen at night. In fact, the North Star, Polaris, which is at the extreme northerly point in the sky, is in the Little Bear Constellation.

When they discovered that at the extreme south of the Earth there is another cold region, they called it by a name that meant "against" or "opposite" the "place near the bear"; they made up the name by adding "ant" to "arctic", where "ant" was short for "anti", meaning "against". You find the same prefix (meaning the first part added to a word) in words like "antibiotic" or "anticlockwise".

It has nothing to do with the insects we call ants, but that is where the name "Antarctic" comes from.