Meaning

noun (Greek mythology) a Titan who was forced by Zeus to bear the sky on his shoulders

noun a collection of maps in book form

noun the 1st cervical vertebra

originBorrowed from Latin Atlas, from the name of the Ancient Greek mythological figure Ἄτλας (Átlas, “Bearer (of the Heavens)”), from τλῆναι (tlênai, “to suffer”, “to endure”, “to bear”). The sense referring to books of maps comes from the Atlas of Mercator, which he named thus in honor of Atlas, who was supposed to be skillful in astronomy and the doctrine of the sphere. The sense referring to the…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0