Thule

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈθjuːliː/
• Rhymes: -uːliː

Alternative forms

• α forms (with ού
  ύ represented by u) Thule, Thulé, Thulê, Thulē, Thūlē, Tule 17^th C.
• β forms (with ού
  ύ represented by y) Thyle 17^th C., Thylé
• γ forms (with ού
  ύ represented by ou) Thoule, Thoulê

Origin

From the Middle English Tīle, Tȳle, from the Old English Tȳle, Thīla, Tīle (variants of Þȳle) and the Medieval Latin Tīle, from the Classical Latin Thūlē, Thȳlē, from the Ancient Greek Θούλη, Θύλη; further etymology is unknown.

Full definition of Thule

Proper noun

1. The ancestors of the Canadian Inuit.
2. The northernmost location of the ancient world.
• 1844, Edgar Allan Poe, (1859), “”, page 41, first stanza, lines 5–6:I have reached these lands but newly // From an ultimate dim Thule.
• 1969, V.E. Watts (translator), Boethius (author), The Consolation of Philosophy, bk III, ch. v, page 89:For distant India tremble may // Beneath your mighty rule, // And Thulé⁵ bow beneath your sway // Far in the Northern sea, // But if to care and want you’re prey, // No king are you, but slave.
• ibidem, footnote 5:5. To the Romans Thulé, variously identified as Iceland or Mainland in the Shetland Isles, marked the extreme northern limit of the known world, just as India here stands for the farthest east.

Derived terms

• Thulean

Related terms

• ultima Thule