If you grew up in New Zealand or Spain, it is likely that you know what antipodes means. I came across it yesterday. Not sure if that means that my geographic knowledge is paltry, but so be it.

antipodes• the direct opposite of something : from Greek antipodes ‘having the feet opposite,’ The term originally denoted the inhabitants of opposite sides of the earth, or of the side opposite to oneself, and was later transferred to the places where they live (mid 16th cent.).

To break it down, the antipodes of any place on the Earth (let’s say, your homeplace) is the very place that is exactly diametrically opposite it. Pick your spot. Draw a line from it through the center of the Earth to its antipodes. Make sure that line is a perfect diameter. An example: the antipodes of New Zealand’s southern North Island is in Spain. But, since we live on a planet covered in 70% water, most land places have antipodes located in the ocean.

Find yours here.

If you read some of the lore about this term, many not so insignificant history lessons pop up. When considering antipodes, people of the age-old past connected it with ‘the other,’ or strangers who could have never descended from the first man Adam, like they did. Our culture is not so different. The media tells us that opposites attract. So does science. But we also get irritated by people who don’t think exactly like us. Nevertheless, a place or person opposite from us lures us in. If something is opposite us, then that means that we are opposite it, which means, by association, we exist, we are oriented.

Oh Lordy, and someone has even taken the term and marketed it with bottled spring water from New Zealand.