A[edit] Afghanistan[edit] Main article: Name of Afghanistan Land of the Afghans in Persian (افغانستان, Afğânestân), attested since at least the 16th century in Baburnama.[1] The name of Afghanistan is believed to be as old as the ethnonym Afghan, which is documented in a 10th-century geography book called Hudud ul-alam focusing on territories south of the Hindu Kush.[2][3] The root name Afghan has been used historically in reference to the Pashtun people and the ending suffix -stan means place of in the local languages. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to the place of Afghans or land of the Afghans in the nations official languages, Pashto and Dari (Persian).[4][5][6] Until the 19th century, it was used for the traditional Pashtun tribal territories between the Hindu Kush and the Indus River. The name Afghanistan began appearing in treaties since 1801[7] and in many written works by historians, particularly by British Indians. The nations constitution later clarified that this was the official name of the state.[8] Kabul or Caboul, a former name: Land of Kabul, a city probably deriving its name from the nearby Kabul River which was known in Sanskrit as the Kubhā,[9] possibly from Scythian ku (water).[10] Although the city has only been attested at its present site since the 8th century, after the Muslim invasions made it preferable to the less defensible Bagram,[11] it has been linked to the Kabolitae (Ancient Greek: Καβωλῖται, Kabōlîtai)[12] and Cabura (Κάβουρα, Káboura)[13] found in some versions of Ptolemy,[14] which in turn has been claimed to have originally been a Kambojapura derived from Kamboja above and -pura (Sanskrit: पुर, city).[15][verification needed] Albania[edit] Main articles: Etymology of Albania and Albania (toponym) Land of the Albanians, Latinized from Byzantine Greek Albanía (Αλβανία), land of the rebel Albanoi (Αλβανοι) mentioned in the History of Michael Attaliates around AD 1080.[16] In her Alexiad, Anna Comnena also mentions a settlement called Albanon or Arbanon.[17] Both may be survivals of the earlier Illyrian tribe, the Albani of the Albanopolis northeast of modern Durrës which appears in Ptolemy around AD 150.[18][19] The demonym has been supposed to ultimately originate from Latin alba (white)[citation needed] or from the proposed Proto-Indo-European *alb (hill) or *alb- (white).[20] Arbëri, its medieval endonym: Land of the Albanians in Albanian, presumably from the same source as above by way of rhotacism. An Arbanitai were mentioned in Attaliatess History as subjects of the Duke of Dyrrachium, near modern Durrës.[16] Arnavutluk, its Ottoman Turkish name: Land of the Albanians, a metathesis from Byzantine Greek Arbanitai and the Turkish locative suffix -lik or -luk.[21] Shqipëri, its modern endonym: Land of the Understanding, from the Albanian adverb shqip, understanding each other.[22][23] A popular pseudoetymology (Land of the Eagles) erroneously derives it instead from shqiponje (eagle).[20] Algeria[edit] Main articles: Etymology of Algeria and Etymology of Algiers Land of Algiers, a Latinization of French colonial name LAlgérie adopted in 1839.[24] The citys name derives from French Alger, itself from Catalan Aldjère,[25] from the Ottoman Turkish Cezayir and Arabic al-Jazāʼir (الجزائر, The Islands). This was a truncated form of the citys older name, Jazā’ir Banī Māzghānna (جزائر بني مازغان, Islands of the sons of Mazgḥannā), which referred to four islands off the citys coast which were held by a local Sanhaja tribe.[26][27] (These islands joined the mainland in 1525.) An alternate theory traces the Arabic further back to a transcription of the Berber Ldzayer in reference to Ziri ibn-Manad,[citation needed] founder of the Zirid Dynasty, whose son resettled the city.[28] In Berber, ziri means moonlight.[citation needed] Algiers[29] or Algier,[30] former names: As above. Andorra[edit] Etymology unknown. Andorra was established as part of Charlemagnes Marca Hispanica and its name may derive from Arabic al-Darra (الدرا, The Forest)[citation needed] or Navarro-Aragonese andurrial (scrubland).[31] One folk etymology holds that it derives from the Biblical Endor, a name bestowed by Louis le Debonnaire after defeating the Moors in the wild valleys of Hell.[citation needed] Angola[edit] Main article: Etymology of Angola Land of Ndongo, from the Portuguese colonial name (Reino de Angola),[32] which erroneously derived a toponym from the Mbundu title ngola a kiluanje (conquering ngola, a priestly title originally denoting a chief smith,[33][34] then eventually king) held by Ndambi a Ngola (Portuguese: Dambi Angola) as lord of Ndongo, a state in the highlands between the Kwanza and Lukala Rivers. Antigua and Barbuda[edit] Antigua: Ancient, corrected from earlier Antego,[35] a truncation of the Spanish Santa Maria la Antigua,[36] bestowed in 1493 by Christopher Columbus in honor of the Virgen de la Antigua (Virgin of the Old Cathedral[37]), a revered mid-14th-century icon in the Chapel of La Antigua in Seville Cathedral.[38] Barbuda: Bearded in Spanish, corrected from earlier Barbado, Berbuda, Barbouthos, &c.[35][39] This may derive from the appearance of the islands fig trees or from the beards of the indigenous people. Argentina[edit] Main articles: Etymology of Argentina and Origin and history of the name of Argentina Platine (lit. Silvery), from the 17th-century Spanish La Argentina, a truncation of Tierra Argentina (Land beside the Silvery River, lit. Silvery Land), named via poetic Spanish argento in reference to the Río de la Plata (Spanish: Silver River; Latin: Argenteus), so-called by Sebastian Cabot during his expedition there in the 1520s after acquiring some silver trinkets from the Guaraní along the Paraná near modern-day Asunción, Paraguay.[40] Armenia[edit] Main articles: Etymology of Armenia and Armenia (name) Etymology unknown. Latinized from Greek Armenía (Ἀρμενία), Land of the Armenioi (Αρμένιοι) attested in the 5th century BC,[41] from Old Persian Armina (Old Persian a.png Old Persian ra.png Old Persian mi.png Old Persian i.png Old Persian na.png) attested in the late 6th century BC,[42] of uncertain origin. It may be a continuation of the Assyrian Armânum[43] which was conquered by Naram-Sin in 2200 BC[44] and has been identified with an Akkadian colony in the Diarbekr region.[43] The name has also been claimed as a variant of the Urmani or Urmenu appearing in an inscription of Menuas of Urartu,[45] as a proposed tribe of the Hayasa-Azzi known as the Armens (Armenian: Արմեններ, Armenner)[46][47] or as a continuation of the Biblical Minni (Hebrew: מנּי)[48] and Assyrian Minnai,[49] corresponding to the Mannai. (Addition of the Sumerogram ḪAR would make this name equivalent to the mountainous region of the Minni.[50][51]) Diakonoff derived the name from a proposed Urartian and Aramaic amalgam *Armnaia (inhabitant of Arme or Urme),[52] a region held by Proto-Armenians in the Sason mountains.[citation needed] Ultimately, the name has been connected to the Proto-Indo-European root *ar- (assemble, create) also found in the word Ararat, Aryan, Arta, &c.[53][54] The Armenians traditionally traced the name to an eponymous ancestor Aram (Armenian: Արամ),[55][56] sometimes equated with Arame, the earliest known king of Urartu.[57] Strabo derived the etymology from an Armenius of Armenium, a city on Lake Boebeïs in Thessaly,[58] while Herodotus called them Phrygian colonists.[59] Hayastan, the local endonym: Etymology unknown. The modern Armenian Hayastan (Հայաստան) derives from earlier Armenian Hayk’ (Հայք) and Persian -stān (ستان). Hayk’ derives from Old Armenian Haykʿ (հայք), traditionally derived from a legendary patriarch named Hayk (Armenian: Հայկ).[60] Aram above was considered to be one of his descendants. Australia[edit] Main article: Etymology of Australia Southern Land in New 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,[61] Australia was slowly popularized following the advocacy of the British explorer Matthew Flinders in his 1814 description of his circumnavigation of the island.[62] 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.[63] The Admiralty agreed seven years later and the continent became officially known as Australia in 1824.[64] In Flinders book he published his rationale: There is no probability, that any other detached body of land, of nearly equal extent, will ever be found in a more southern latitude; the name Terra Australis will, therefore, remain descriptive of the geographical importance of this country, and of its situation on the globe: it has antiquity to recommend it; and, having no reference to either of the two claiming nations, appears to be less objectionable than any other which could have been selected.[65] (Antarctica, the hypothesized land for which the name Terra Australis originally referred to, was sighted in 1820, and not explored until decades after Flinders book had popularized this shift of the name.) Oz, a colloquial endonym: Likely a contraction from above. Folk etymology traces the name to the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, but the Oxford English Dictionary records the first occurrence as Oss in 1908.[66] Frank Baums original book predates this and may have inspired the name,[67] but it is also possible Baum himself was influenced by Australia in his development of Oz.[68] Nova Hollandia, a former name: New Holland in New Latin (Dutch: Nieuw Holland), after the Dutch province, bestowed by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1644. For the further etymology of Holland, see the Netherlands below. Austria[edit] Main articles: Etymology of Austria and Name of Austria Eastern March, Latinized as early as 1147 from German Österreich,[69] from Old High German Ostarrîchi (996) or Osterrîche (998),[70] from Medieval Latin Marchia Orientalis, an eastern prefecture for the Duchy of Bavaria established in 976. A common pseudoetymology renders Österreich as Eastern Empire, but this is a false cognate. Similarly, it is completely unrelated etymologically to Australia. Azerbaijan[edit] Main articles: Etymology of Azerbaijan and Name of Azerbaijan Land of Aturpat, a Hellenistic-era king over a region in present-day Iranian Azarbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan, south of the modern state.[71][72] Despite this difference, the present name was chosen by the Musavat to replace the Russian names Transcaucasia and Baku in 1918. Azerbaijan derives from Persian Āzarbāydjān, from earlier Ādharbāyagān and Ādharbādhagān, from Middle Persian Āturpātākān, from Old Persian Atropatkan. (The name is often derived from the Greek Atropatene (Ἀτροπαρηνή),[73][74] Atropátios Mēdía (Ἀτροπάτιος Μηδία),[75] or Tropatēnē (Τροπατηνή),[76] although these were exonyms and Atropatkan was never thoroughly Hellenized.) Atropatkan was a renaming of the Achaemenian XVIII Satrapy of Eastern Armenia, comprising Matiene and the surrounding Urartians and Saspirians,[77] upon Aturpats declaration of independence from the Diadochi Seleucus following the death of Alexander the Great. Aturpats own name (Old Persian: Old Persian a.png Old Persian tu.png Old Persian ra.png Old Persian pa.png Old Persian a.png Old Persian tu.png; Greek: Aτρoπάτης, Atropátēs) is the Old Persian for protected by atar, the holy fire of Zoroastrianism.[78] Albania, a former name: From the Latin Albānia, from the Greek Albanía (Ἀλβανία),[79] related to the Old Armenian Ałuankʿ (Աղուանք). The native Lezgic name(s) for the country is unknown,[80] but Strabo reported its people to have 26 different languages and to have only been recently unified in his time. It is often referenced as Caucasian Albania in modern scholarship to distinguish it from the European country above. Arran, a former name: From the Middle Persian Arran, from Parthian Ardhan, derived via rhotacism from earlier names as above.[citation needed] Transcaucasia, a former name: A Latinization of the Russian name Zakavkaze (Закавказье), both meaning across the Caucasus Mountains — i.e., from Russia. It appeared in the names of two states, the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic and the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 09:42:48 +0000
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