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From: Troy Sagrillo <t.sagrillo@utoronto.ca>
Subject: Re: "The 4 corners and the 7 seas" ?
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Date: Sun, 13 Oct 1996 14:29:03 GMT
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Miguel Carrasquer Vidal wrote:
> 
> mathwft@math.canterbury.ac.nz (Bill Taylor) wrote:
> 
> >This ancient phrase from my boyhood always puzzled me.
> 
> >I presume the 4 corners were N S W E, but what were the seven seas??
> 
> Nobody has answered, so I guess nobody knows.  I'm no exception.
> All I can say is that I know the phrase in Dutch as well
> (de zeven zeee"n), but *not* in Spanish.

The OED say:

"seven seas: the Arctic, Antarctic, North and South Pacific, North and
South Atlantic, and Indian Oceans"

However, I seem to remember that the concept goes back to mediaeval
Arabic (I vaugely recall them being named specifically in the Thousand
Nights and One Night, but don't remember which story). The notion of the
"Seven Heavens" certainly is an Arabic one that was borrowed by the West
(poss. through mediaeval Jewish thought as well).

