HYPERBOREAN, in the ancient geography. The ancients denominated thofe people and places Hyperborean, which were to the northward of the Scythians. They had but very little acquaintance with thefe Hyperborean regions; and all they tell us of them is very precarious, much of it falfe. Diodorus Siculus fays, the Hyperboreans were thus called by reafon they dwelt beyond the wind Boreas; υπερ fignifying "above, or beyond," and βορέας, Boreas, the "north wind." This etymology is very natural and plausible; notwithstanding all that Rudbeck has faid againft it, who would have the word to be Gothic, and to fignify nobility. Herodotus doubts, whether or no there were any fuch nations as the Hyperborean. Strabo, who profeffes that he believes there are, does not take hyperborean to fignify beyond Boreas or the north, as Herodotus underftood it: the prepoftition υπερ, in this cafe, he fuppofes only to help to form a fuperlative; fo that hyperborean, on his principle, means no more than moft northern: by which it appears the ancients fcarce knew themfelves what the name meant.