Vitus Behring

8.9

An explorer from Denmark who works for Russia and explores the northern Pacific Ocean

proper noun

: Vitus Behring

In 1728, Vitus Behring successfully sailed through what we now call the Bering Strait.

Examples

The Bering Strait was named after Vitus Behring in recognition of his discoveries.
Vitus Behring led two major expeditions that mapped parts of Siberia and Alaska.
Many geographic features in the Arctic are named after Vitus Behring.
The famous explorer Vitus Behring navigated the northern Pacific Ocean.
Did Vitus Behring really discover the Bering Strait?
Vitus Behring is celebrated for his exploration of the northern Pacific Ocean and for discovering the Bering Strait.
Many places in the Arctic are named after Vitus Behring, honoring his contributions to exploration.

Synonyms

Vitus Bering

vsVitus Behring

1 8.1

A Danish explorer who sailed for Russia and found the narrow sea between Asia and North America

is the same person but has a different spelling of the name

Surface Forms

Vitus Behring main

Morphology

Vitus + Behring

This is a personal name (proper noun) rather than a compositional phrase, and the constituent tokens provide no lexical meaning for a learner to combine — the two parts are not common English words and are marked as not found in the dictionary. Biographical information (an explorer who discovered the Bering Strait) cannot be inferred from the name itself, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituent strings would not be able to derive the meaning.

Etymology

Vitus Behring was a Danish explorer who sailed for Russia and found the narrow sea between Siberia and Alaska, now called the Bering Strait. So Vitus Behring is remembered as the man who 'discovered' that passage.