List of continent name etymologies

Last updated

This is a list of the etymologies of continent names as they are currently found on Earth.

Contents

Africa

The name Africa was originally used by the ancient Romans to refer to the northern part of the continent that corresponds to modern-day Tunisia. There are many theories regarding its origin.

The name "Africa" began to be stretched to encompass a larger area when the provinces of Tripolitania, Numidia and Mauretania Caesariensis were subdued to the Diocesis of Africa, following the administrative restructuring of Diocletian. Later, when Justinian I reconquered lands of the former West Roman Empire, all the regions from the Chelif River to the Gulf of Sidra were annexed to the Byzantine Empire as the "Exarchate of Africa".

During the Middle Ages, as the Europeans increased their knowledge and awareness of the size of the African continent, they progressively extended the name of Africa to the rest of the continent.

America

The continent of America is thought to be named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci (who styled himself Americus Vespucius in Latin). Amerigo Vespucci was named after Saint Emeric of Hungary, who was in turn named for his maternal uncle, the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II. Vespucci, following his four voyages exploring the coastlines of Venezuela and Brazil, first developed the idea that the newly discovered western land was in fact a continent. The German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller created the earliest known map showing the name America, which he applied to the South American continent only.

1594 world map by Petrus Plancius 1594 double hemisphere world map by Petrus Plancius.jpg
1594 world map by Petrus Plancius

The 1594 map by Petrus Plancius labels the two landmasses "America Mexicana" and "America Peruana", two terms still used in the 17th century. [1]

In the late 19th century, it was theorized that the name could have been patterned on the Mayan language for the Amerrisque Mountains in present-day Nicaragua. [2]

An alternative theory was proposed by the local Bristol antiquarian Alfred Hudd who proposed that the word America had evolved from Amerike or ap Meryk, based on a lost manuscript which he claimed to have seen. Alfred Hudd was an aristocrat who belonged to the Clifton Antiquarian Club of Bristol, founded in 1884 to arrange meetings and excursions for the study of objects of archaeological interest in the West of England and South Wales. He also collected butterflies, was a naturalist and member of the Bristol Naturalists' Society. Hudd proposed that the word "America" was originally applied to a destination across the western ocean, possibly an island or a fishing station in Newfoundland. After the king of Denmark and ruler of Iceland had cut off trade for fish, England sent out expeditions to find new sources. Hudd suggested Amerike's sponsorship made his name known in Bristol in association with the North American destinations prior to other mapmaking or voyages. The writer Jonathan Cohen noted he made a conjectural leap to reach that conclusion, and no extant evidence supports it. [3] In the 21st century, the scholar John Davies briefly mentioned the story as a kind of Welsh patriot piece. [4]

Antarctica

The word Antarctica comes from Greek antarktikos (ἀνταρκτικός), from anti (ἀντί) and arktikos (ἀρκτικός) "Arctic". Literally "opposite to the Arctic (opposite to the North)". [5] [6] [7] Arktikos comes from Arktos, the Greek name for the constellation of the Great Bear Ursa Major, visible only in the Northern Hemisphere, which comes from the ancient Greek word ἄρκτος (Greek: [ˈarktos] ), which means "bear". [8]

Asia

The word Asia originated from the Ancient Greek word Ἀσία, [9] first attributed to Herodotus (about 440 BCE) in reference to Anatolia or to the Persian Empire, in contrast to Greece and Egypt.

It originally was just a name for the east bank of the Aegean Sea, an area known to the Hittites as Assuwa. In early Classical times, the Greeks started using the term "Asia" to refer to the whole region known today as Anatolia (the peninsula which forms the Asian portion of present-day Turkey). The Roman Empire referred to the entire Lydian region of what is now northwestern Turkey as the province of Asia. Eventually, however, the name had been stretched progressively further east, until it came to encompass the much larger land area with which we associate it today, while the Anatolian Peninsula started being called "Asia Minor" or "The Lesser Asia" instead.

The deeper root of the etymology can only be guessed at. The following two possibilities have been suggested:

However, since the Greek name Asia is in all likelihood related to Hittite Assuwa, the etymology of one has to account for the other as well.

It is personified in Greek mythology by the deity of the same name.

Australia

The word Australia means "Southern Land" in Neo-Latin, adapted from the legendary pseudo-geographical Terra Australis Incognita ("Unknown Southern Land") dating back to the Roman era. First appearing as a corruption of the Spanish name for an island in Vanuatu in 1625, [10] "Australia" was slowly popularized following the advocacy of the British explorer Matthew Flinders in his 1814 description of his circumnavigation of the island. [11] Lachlan Macquarie, a Governor of New South Wales, used the word in his dispatches to England and recommended it be formally adopted by the Colonial Office in 1817. [12] The Admiralty agreed seven years later and the continent became officially known as Australia in 1824. [13]

Europe

In classical Greek mythology, Europa (Ancient Greek: Εὐρώπη, Eurṓpē) was a Phoenician princess. Greek Εὐρώπη (Eurṓpē) contains the elements εὐρύς (eurus), "wide, broad" [14] and ὤψ/ὠπ-/ὀπτ- (ōps/ ōp-/opt-) "eye, face, countenance". [15] Broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion. [16]

It is common in ancient Greek mythology and geography to identify lands or rivers with female figures. Thus, Europa is first used in a geographic context in the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo, in reference to the western shore of the Aegean Sea. [17] As a name for a part of the known world, it is first used in the 6th century BC by Anaximander and Hecataeus. [18] The weakness of an etymology with εὐρύς (eurus), is 1. that the -u stem of εὐρύς disappears in Εὐρώπη Europa and 2. the expected form εὐρυώπη euryopa that retains the -u stem in fact exists.

An alternative suggestion due to Ernest Klein and Giovanni Semerano (1966) attempted to connect a Semitic term for "west", Akkadian erebu meaning "to go down, set" (in reference to the sun), Phoenician 'ereb "evening; west", which would parallel occident (the resemblance to Erebus , from PIE *h1regʷos, "darkness", is accidental, however). Barry (1999) adduces the word Ereb on an Assyrian stele with the meaning of "night", "[the country of] sunset", in opposition to Asu "[the country of] sunrise", i.e. Asia (Anatolia coming equally from Ἀνατολή, "(sun)rise", "east"). [19] This proposal is mostly considered unlikely or untenable. [a] [21] [22]

Oceania

The word Oceania comes from the English word ocean for 'a large body of water'. It is ultimately derived from Greek Ὠκεανός (Okeanos), [23] the great river or sea surrounding the disk of the Earth. In Greek mythology, it is personified as Oceanus, son of Uranus and Gaia and husband of Tethys.

Other

Zealandia

Zealandia ( /ziːˈlændiə/ ), also known as the New Zealand continent or Tasmantis, is a nearly submerged continental fragment that sank after breaking away from Australia 60–85 Ma (million years) ago, and most of it (93%) remains submerged beneath the Pacific Ocean. It derives its name from the island country of New Zealand which occupies the vast majority of its non-submerged land. Dutch explorers named the land Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland, [24] [25] and British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand. [26] [ self-published source ] [27]

Pangaea

The name Pangaea/Pangea is derived from Ancient Greek pan ( πᾶν , "all, entire, whole") and Gaia ( Γαῖα , "Mother Earth, land"). [28] [33] The word was allegedly coined by German meteorologist Alfred L. Wegener [34] in 1915. The name was meant to imply the all-encompassing nature of Pangaea, that all the earth (landmass) on the planet at the time was encompassed within the Supercontinent.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Martin Litchfield West states that "phonologically, the match between Europa's name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor". [20]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Europa (consort of Zeus)</span> Greek mythology character, daughter of Agenor

In Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess from Tyre and the mother of King Minos of Crete. The continent of Europe is named after her. The story of her abduction by Zeus in the form of a bull was a Cretan story; as classicist Károly Kerényi points out, "most of the love-stories concerning Zeus originated from more ancient tales describing his marriages with goddesses. This can especially be said of the story of Europa."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North</span> One of the four cardinal directions

North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. North is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West</span> One of the four cardinal directions

West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhadamanthus</span> Greek mythology character, son of Zeus and Europa

In Greek mythology, Rhadamanthus or Rhadamanthys was a wise king of Crete. As the son of Zeus and Europa he was considered a demigod. He later became one of the judges of the dead and an important figure in Greek mythology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South</span> One of the four cardinal directions

South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east.

Cilix was, according to Greek mythology, a Phoenician prince as the son of King Agenor and Telephassa or Argiope.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naming of the Americas</span> Origin of the name of the continents, most likely named after Amerigo Vespucci

The naming of the Americas, or America, occurred shortly after Christopher Columbus's death in 1506. The earliest known use of the name America dates to April 25, 1507, when it was applied to what is now known as South America. It is generally accepted that the name derives from Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer, who explored the new continents in the following years on behalf of Spain and Portugal, with the name given by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller. However, some have suggested other explanations, including being named after the Amerrisque mountain range in Nicaragua, or after Richard Amerike, a merchant from Bristol, England.

A jinx, in popular superstition and folklore, is a curse or the attribute of attracting bad or negative luck.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New World</span> Synonym for the Americas

The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas. The term arose in the early 16th century during Europe's Age of Discovery, after Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci published the Latin-language pamphlet Mundus Novus, presenting his conclusion that these lands constitute a new continent.

"Uncleftish Beholding" (1989) is a short text by Poul Anderson, first published in the Mid-December 1989 issue of the magazine Analog Science Fiction and Fact and included in his anthology All One Universe (1996). It is designed to illustrate what English might look like without its large number of words derived from languages such as French, Greek, and Latin, especially with regard to the proportion of scientific words with origins in those languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afro-Eurasia</span> Landmass consisting of Africa, Asia, and Europe

Afro-Eurasia is a landmass comprising the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia. The terms are compound words of the names of its constituent parts. Afro-Eurasia has also been called the "Old World", in contrast to the "New World" referring to the Americas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Continent</span> Large geographical region identified by convention

A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single landmass or a part of a very large landmass, as in the case of Asia or Europe. Due to this, the number of continents varies; up to seven or as few as four geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Most English-speaking countries recognize seven regions as continents. In order from largest to smallest in area, these seven regions are Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. Different variations with fewer continents merge some of these regions; examples of this are merging North America and South America into America, Asia and Europe into Eurasia, and Africa, Asia, and Europe into Afro-Eurasia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pangaea</span> Supercontinent from the late Paleozoic to early Mesozoic eras

Pangaea or Pangea was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from the earlier continental units of Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia during the Carboniferous approximately 335 million years ago, and began to break apart about 200 million years ago, at the end of the Triassic and beginning of the Jurassic. Pangaea was C-shaped, with the bulk of its mass stretching between Earth's northern and southern polar regions and surrounded by the superocean Panthalassa and the Paleo-Tethys and subsequent Tethys Oceans. Pangaea is the most recent supercontinent to have existed and the first to be reconstructed by geologists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurasia</span> Combined landmasses of Europe and Asia

Eurasia is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concepts of Europe and Asia as distinct continents date back to antiquity, but their borders have historically been subject to change. For example, to the ancient Greeks, Asia originally included Africa but they classified Europe as separate land. Eurasia is connected to Africa at the Suez Canal, and the two are sometimes combined to describe the largest contiguous landmass on Earth, Afro-Eurasia.

Forgotten continent may refer to:

References

  1. ↑ Lewe, Roberts (1677). "The Merchants Map of Commerce".
  2. ↑ Cohen, Jonathan. "The Naming of America: Fragments We've Shored Against Ourselves". Stony Brook University . Archived from the original on 7 June 2010. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  3. ↑ Jonathan Cohen, "The naming of America: fragments we've shored against ourselves", early version appeared in American Voices, 1998; this version at his website at Stony Brook University, accessed 10 July 2011
  4. ↑ John Davies (2001). "Wales and America" (PDF). North American Journal of Welsh Studies, Vol. 1, Volume 1, Number 1-2, (Winter-Summer). p. 12. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-16. Retrieved 2008-11-30.
  5. ↑ "Antarctic facts, information, pictures - Encyclopedia.com articles about Antarctic". www.encyclopedia.com.
  6. ↑ "antarctic - Search Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com.
  7. ↑ "anti- - Origin and meaning of prefix anti- by Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com.
  8. ↑ "arctic - Search Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com.
  9. ↑ "asia - Search Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com.
  10. ↑ Purchas, Samuel. "A note of Australia del Espíritu Santo, written by Master Hakluyt", in Hakluytus Posthumus, Vol. IV, pp. 1422-1432. 1625.
  11. ↑ Flinders, Matthew. A Voyage to Terra Australis Archived 2012-11-11 at the Wayback Machine . 1814.
  12. ↑ Letter of 12 December 1817. Weekend Australian, 30–31 December 2000, p. 16.
  13. ↑ Department of Immigration and Citizenship (2007). Life in Australia (PDF). Commonwealth of Australia. p. 11. ISBN   978-1-921446-30-6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 October 2009. Retrieved 30 March 2010.
  14. ↑ εὐρύς Archived 2021-12-22 at the Wayback Machine , Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  15. ↑ ὤψ Archived 2021-12-22 at the Wayback Machine , Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
  16. ↑ M. L. West (2007). Indo-European poetry and myth . Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp.  178–179. ISBN   978-0-19-928075-9.. Compare also glaukōpis (γλαυκῶπις 'grey-eyed') Athena or boōpis (βοὠπις 'ox-eyed') Hera).
  17. ↑ Τελφοῦσ᾽, ἐνθάδε δὴ φρονέω περικαλλέα νηὸν / ἀνθρώπων τεῦξαι χρηστήριον, οἵτε μοι αἰεὶ ἐνθάδ᾽ ἀγινήσουσι τεληέσσας ἑκατόμβας, / ἠμὲν ὅσοι Πελοπόννησον πίειραν ἔχουσιν / ἠδ᾽ ὅσοι Εὐρώπην τε καὶ ἀμφιρύτας κατὰ νήσους "Telphusa, here I am minded to make a glorious temple, an oracle for men, and hither they will always bring perfect hecatombs, both those who live in rich Peloponnesus and those of Europe and all the wave-washed isles, coming to seek oracles." (verses 247–251, trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White).
  18. ↑ Histories 4.38. C.f. James Rennell, The geographical system of Herodotus examined and explained, Volume 1, Rivington 1830, p. 244
  19. ↑ M.A. Barry (1999) "L’Europe et son mythe : à la poursuite du couchant". Revue des deux Mondes. p. 110. ISBN   978-2-7103-0937-6
  20. ↑ M. L. West (1997). The east face of Helicon: west Asiatic elements in Greek poetry and myth. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 451. ISBN   0-19-815221-3.
  21. ↑ Klein, Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (Barking: Elsevier) vol. I A-K, 1966; Klein's etymology of Europa is singled out among his "optimistic" conclusions in G. W. S. Friedrichsen (1967). "REVIEWS". The Review of English Studies. XVIII (71). Oxford University Press (OUP): 295–297. doi:10.1093/res/xviii.71.295. JSTOR   i222266.
  22. ↑ Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Europa"  . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  23. ↑ "ocean - Search Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com.
  24. ↑ Wilson, John (September 2007). "Tasman's achievement". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 16 February 2008.
  25. ↑ Mackay, Duncan (1986). "The Search For The Southern Land". In Fraser, B (ed.). The New Zealand Book Of Events. Auckland: Reed Methuen. pp. 52–54.
  26. ↑ Nedell, Jack (2012). Around the World in 80 Years. Xlibris Corporation. p. 33. ISBN   9781477143858.[ self-published source ]
  27. ↑ McKinnon, Malcolm (November 2009). "Place names – Naming the country and the main islands". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
  28. ↑ "Pangaea". Online Etymology Dictionary .
  29. ↑ Vergilius Mario, Publius. Georgicon, IV.462
  30. ↑ Lucan. Pharsalia, I.679
  31. ↑ Lewis, C.T. & al. "Pangaeus" in A Latin Dictionary. (New York), 1879.
  32. ↑ Usener, H. Scholia in Lucani Bellum Civile, Vol. I. (Leipzig), 1869.
  33. ↑ As "Pangaea", it appears in Greek mythology as a mountain battle site during the Titanomachia. As "Pangaeus", it was the name of a specific mountain range in southern Thrace. "Pangaea" also appears in Vergil's Georgics [29] and Lucan's Pharsalia [30] [31] The scholiast on Lucan glossed Pangaea id est totum terra—"Pangaea: that is, all land"—as having received its name on account of its smooth terrain and unexpected fertility. [32]
  34. ↑ "Pangaea". Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. 2018. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.