• Hyperborean

From Late Latin hyperboreanus, cognate with Classical Latin hyperboreus, from Ancient Greek ὑπερβόρεος (huperbóreos), composed of ὑπέρ (hupér, “over”) + βόρειος (bóreios, “northern”). See also Ὑπερβόρεοι (Huperbóreoi).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /hʌɪ.pəˈbɔː.ɹɪən/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌhaɪ.pɚˈboɹ.i.jɪn/

hyperborean (plural hyperboreans)

1. (Greek mythology, usually capitalised) One of a race of people living in the extreme north, beyond the north wind.

   The Hyperboreans venerated Apollo over the other gods.

2. (usually humorous) Any person living in a northern country, or to the north.

hyperborean (comparative more hyperborean, superlative most hyperborean)

1. Pertaining to the extreme north of the earth; or (usually humorous) to a specific northern country or area.
   • 1633, C. Butler, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     The hyperborean or frozen sea.

   • 1730, James Thomson, “Autumn. Inscribed to the Right Honourable Arthur Onslow, Esq; Speaker of the House of Commons.”, in The Seasons, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 167, lines 857–859:

     Hovv, by the fineſt art, the native robe / To vveave; hovv, vvhite as hyperborean ſnovv, / To form the lucid lavvn; […]

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, , →OCLC:

     You could have knelt down, damn it, Kinch, when your dying mother asked you, Buck Mulligan said. I’m hyperborean as much as you. But to think of your mother begging you with her last breath to kneel down and pray for her. And you refused.

   • 1998 [1871], Jules Verne, translated by William Butcher, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, revised, illustrated edition:

     Amongst the fish that the Nautilus frightened as it passed, I will cite the metre-long cyclopteroid with a black back and orange stomach, providing an example of conjugal fidelity rarely followed by its congeners, a huge Forsskal's stingray, a sort of emerald moray eel which has a excellent taste, big-eyed carracks whose heads resemble dogs', blennies viviparous like snakes, 20-centimetre frillgobies or black gudgeons, and Macrura with long tails and shining with a silvery glitter: quick fish that had ventured far from hyperborean seas.