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This is a list of the etymologies of continent names.
[edit] AfricaThe ancient Romans used the name Africa terra --- "land of the Afri" (plural, or "Afer" singular) --- for the northern part of the continent that corresponds to modern-day Tunisia. The origin of Afer may be the Phoenician afar, dust; the Afridi tribe, who dwelt in Northern Africa around the area of Carthage; Greek aphrike, without cold; or Latin aprica, sunny. The name Africa --that was originally used by the Romans to refer to present-day Tunisia only-- 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. [edit] AmericaSo-named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci (who styled himself Americus Vespucius in Latin), who, following his four voyages to the Americas, first developed the idea that the newly discovered western lands were in fact a continent. In recognition thereof, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller named the new continent after the Italian explorer's first name. Amerigo Vespucci was named after Saint Americus of Hungary. (See also Naming of America.) The English name corresponding to Emeric is Henry. A few alternative theories regarding the continent's naming have been proposed, but none of them have any widespread acceptance. One alternative first proposed by a Bristol antiquary and naturalist, Alfred Hudd, was that America is derived from Richard Amerike, a merchant from Bristol, England who is believed to have financed John Cabot's voyage of discovery to Newfoundland in 1497. Waldseemüller's maps appear to incorporate information from the early British journeys to North America. The theory holds that a variant of Amerike's name appeared on an early British map (of which however no copies survive) and that this was the true inspiration for Waldseemüller. (See more at Richard Amerike). One antique map shows the continent labelled "North America or Mexicana" and "South America or Peruana". [edit] AntarcticaOriginally from Greek antarktikos, from anti + arktikos "Arctic". Literally "opposite to the Arctic (opposite to the North)".[1][2][3] 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[ˈarktos] which means bear.[4] [edit] AsiaThe word Asia originated from the Ancient Greek word "Ἀσία",[5] 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). 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 "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 (Ασία) is in all likelihood related to Hittite Assuwa, the etymology of one has to account for the other as well. Personified in Greek mythology by the deity of the same name. [edit] AustraliaThe name Australia is derived from the Latin Australis, meaning of the South. In order to balance the Globe the hypothetical continent Terra Australis Incognita ("unknown land of the south") was invented and dates back to the Roman times. It was commonplace in mediaeval geography, but was not based on any actual knowledge of the continent. [edit] EuropeThe name Europe comes from the Latin: Europa, which in turn derives from the Greek: Εὐρώπη, from eurys "wide" and ops "face"[6][7] A less likely possibility proposed by Ernest Klein is that it derives from the ancient Sumerian and Semitic root "Ereb", which carries the meaning of "darkness" or "descent", a reference to the region's western location in relation to Mesopotamia, the Levantine Coast, Anatolia, and the Bosporus. Thus the term would have meant the 'land of the setting of the Sun' or, more generically, 'Western land'. The term Europe referred once to only a small land area, roughly that part of Thrace that is now part of Turkey. Through the centuries however, it came to denote the whole land mass with which we are familiar today. [edit] OceaniaFrom the English word ocean for 'a large body of water'. It is ultimately derived from Greek Ωκεανός (Okeanos)[8][9], the great river or sea surrounding the disk of the Earth. Personified, in Greek Mythology, as Oceanus, son of Uranus and Gaia and husband of Tethys. The Danish geographer Conrad Malte-Brun introduced the term 'Oceania' for the islands of the Pacific Ocean in the 19th century. Later Australia, New Guinea and New Zealand were added. [edit] See also
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