From Latin 'latitudo' (breadth) — ancient geographers measured north-south distance as the 'breadth' of the known world.
The angular distance of a place north or south of the equator, measured in degrees; figuratively, freedom or scope for action.
From Latin 'lātitūdō' (breadth, width, extent), from 'lātus' (wide, broad), from Proto-Indo-European '*stleh₂-' (to spread, to extend). The geographic meaning arose because ancient geographers conceived the known world as wider (east-west) than it was tall (north-south). 'Latitude' measured the shorter north-south dimension — the 'breadth' of the world — while 'longitude' (from 'longus,' long) measured the greater east
Latitude was much easier to determine at sea than longitude. A sailor could measure latitude by observing the angle of the sun or the North Star above the horizon. Longitude, however, required knowing the exact time — a problem not solved until John Harrison invented the marine chronometer in the 1760s. The 'longitude problem' was so pressing