Leif Ericson

American  

noun

1. Ericson, Leif.

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Leif Ericson British  

/ ˈliːf ˈɛrɪksən /

noun

1. See Ericson

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Ericson, Leif Cultural  

1. A Norwegian explorer of about the year 1000. He is said to have discovered a place in North America called Vinland. Several locations are possible for Vinland, including the Canadian province of Newfoundland and New England.

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Discover More

Ericson, rather than Christopher Columbus, is sometimes called the European discoverer of America. His discovery, however, is not indisputably documented, as the discovery of Columbus is. Also, Ericson's voyages, unlike the voyages of Columbus, did not result in continuous colonization.

Example Sentences

You might be standing by the tallest church in the country, Hallgrímskirkja, after a morning nap, still slightly jet-lagged from the overnight flight, looking to the north at the mountains across the bay and, to the west, down the bustling thoroughfare Skólavörðustígur, having peeked around the statue of Leif Ericson.

From New York Times

“Like saying that Columbus was the first explorer to land on North America, when he didn’t even land on North America, and the first explorer was Leif Ericson. And that one is also true.”

From Literature

There is also a statue of Icelandic explorer Leif Ericson, who might have been the first European to sail to the Americas in the year 1000, and a statue of Hans Christian Andersen, the famous Danish author of fairy tales.

From Washington Times

He did it in 33.5 hours in a single-seat, single-engine monoplane, thus making him a kind of 20th-century Leif Ericson, an aeronautical Magellan, one of the earliest beacons of the age of aviation.

From New York Times

Some say it was Leif Ericson, some say it was Columbus, but I say it was The Little Old Man of the Rock.

From Project Gutenberg