Talk:List of continent name etymologies

Untitled
Although the contents of this page are more or less duplicated on Toponymy, I didn't add this on Duplicate articles because toponymy is different from etymology. The contents need to be sorted out though. Jay 11:23, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC) -

"The etymology of Asia can only be guessed at. The strongest possibility is that is that it derives from a borrowed Semitic root 'Asu', which means varyingly 'rising' or 'light', of course a directional referring to the sunrise, Asia thus meaning 'Eastern Land'."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is there not an Oceanid in Greek mythology with the name 'Asia'? Just wondering. -anonymous
 * yep. see Asia (mythology)150.140.226.79 (talk) 10:52, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

Suffixes
At the miscellaneous reference desk the idea came up to make a list of common suffixes in placenames. This aritcle might be a good place to put them. Here's a list of suffixes that have already been suggested there. A grouping into countries, regions and towns might not always be clear.


 * For countries: -stan, -ia, -nesia
 * Regions: -shire, -nam, -franken
 * Towns: -stad/stadt, -stede, -stock, -dam, -burg, -grad, -gorod, -polis, -tricht/trecht, -ton, -mouth, -mond, -zhou, -an, -pest
 * Other (?): -holm, -dal, -sund, -ford

The folowing have already been sorted out by 24.20.130.253:
 * Based on native words indicating a settlement or territory. -abad: Islamabad. -grad: Novi Grad. -grade: Belgrade. -grod: Grodzisk. -gorod: Novgorod. -pol: Stavropol. -krai-: Kraina. -kray: Krasnodar Kray.
 * Based on native adjectives. -ski(y(e)): Chernyayevskiy. -skaya: Kargalinskaya. -skoy(e): Nagutskoye. -naya: Gornaya.
 * Based on native words for hills. -gor: Krasnogor. -gorsk: Magnitogorsk. Gór-: Górna.
 * Based on common last-name suffixes. -ov: Saratov. -ów: Leśników.
 * Other commonly used place name suffixes. -o: Stalino. -an: Yerevan. -ka, e.g. Głowacka. -sk: Chelyabinsk, Minsk.

I wonder what should be done where a suffix has been anglicised, such as -grade, which is probably originally -grado. These might be grouped together, along with (in this case) -grad, assuming that means the same but in a different language, but then also -grod/gorod and -kray/krai? And -pol? (A problem is I know too little about this.)


 * If the words have the same meaning and come from the same roots, then they should be grouped together. Russian and Belarusian use "gorod" (город) for "city", and less frequently "grad" (град), while Serbian/Croatian only uses "grad". The "krai/kray" means edge or territory in Russian (край) and Ukrainian (краї), and although these have the same pronunciation, they're spelled differently in their native scripts. Words for "mountain" are also commonly used in placenames and are similar in Russian (гора -> gora), Ukrainian (гора, ґора -> hora), Czech (hora), Belarusian (гара -> gara), and Polish (góra). The mix of native terms and different transliteration rules have produced inconsistent anglicized spelling. For example, Belgrade (Beograd) has an "e" at the end of it's anglicized name, but not nearby Novi Grad (Novigrad), even though both end with "grad" in their native script. --24.20.130.253 19:57, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

There are also German places named simply 'Bad' (or 'Bad Hersfeld' and the like). In this case it's obvious that that has nothing to do with the suffix -bad, but in general it might be a good idea to point this out. And then there's a place called Bãd in Iran. And a place named 'Bad Axe' in the USA. I wonder what that stands for. German origin? (Tough trees? :) )

Shimgray warns that "anything involving etymology tends to breed slightly flaky original research". And indeed I'm inclined to see a connection between Woodstock and Rostock in Germany, which is likely but, again, I don't really know.

And what about prefixes? Of course there are New/Nova/Nouveau/Novi/Novoya and the like, but those may be a bit too obvious and separate words rather than prefixes (a few places start with neo-, but I don't know if that's a prefix). A similar case can be made for St/Saint/San/Santa/Santo/São. And poly-, micro- and mela- as prefixes seem to only be used in conjunction with -nesia.

Prefixes are easily found because they're alphabetically grouped together in an Atlas index. A quick glance gave me Black-, Cook-, Dong-, Free-, Glad-, Lin-, Mar-, Nor-, North- and a whole bunch of which I haven't a clue if they're prefixes. Also, what would become a suffix in English may gramatically become a prefix in other languages. But this strategy might also work to some extent with suffixes if someone could write a program that reverses names in a list and alphabetises them (shouldn't be too difficult). DirkvdM 09:57, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

rename?
I think this article should be renamed. The current title Placename etymology seems to suggest that the article would explain place-name etymology as a scholarly discipline, and not merely contain a random list of etymologies for continent names and the like (which are moreover not prototypical place-names). Any suggestions? --AAikio 10:48, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree, the name is inaccurate. Frankly, I think we might want to just limit it to the seven continents, and rename the article "List of continent name etymologies". --Miskwito 01:02, 5 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Sounds like a good idea to me. No objections so far, so should we just go ahead?--AAikio 16:01, 17 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Since no one had objected, I just went ahead and moved it. --Miskwito 21:15, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Europe
I have always thought that "Europe" comes from "Euros" which is the name of a wind that blowed on Greece from the northwest, but as I am not sure, I didn't put it on the article.

If "Europe" really comes from the Semitic "Ereb", then I assume it was the Phoenicians who gave it the name. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.24.0.245 (talk) 09:08, 17 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I wouldn't be surprised if "Europe" and the story of the bull had originally been nothing more than an aitiology trying to make sense of a non-sensical name (probably borrowed from an earlier language). My bet is: don't look for other Greek words with the root "euro-" in it, don't look for Semitic or Sumerian explanations, give in to the non liquet of just anoter of those origins lost in the dark of time. ;-) Trigaranus (talk) 15:43, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Britannica has an article on the origin of Europe's name that indicates it's not as clear cut. One possible origin is that it comes from the Greek words eurys and ops to form a descriptive name meaning "wide gazing". Another is that it might come from the Greek goddess Europa. Ndtaylor (talk) 20:31, 3 April 2022 (UTC)

America
America - Amerigo - Saint Emeric. But this page says "Amerigo is the Italian form of a Gothic personal name, Amalric 'master workman', from amal 'work' and ric 'power'." So this should be either resolved, or both versions should be listed.188.2.239.107 (talk) 00:36, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

Australia is a continent, Oceania is a region.
Oceania is listed in the "List of continent name etymologies" yet Australia is not. This should be the other way around.

There is a good etymology for Australia in the entry on Australia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia. I don't know your rules, but that section could be copied into this entry, paraphrased or this entry could point the reader to that site. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.129.47.241 (talk) 23:29, 17 December 2011 (UTC)

Not enough proof for Amerigo?
It says there isn't much proof for saying Amerigo Vespucci is the namesake of America, but I found a letter on this webpage that is in Latin, but it says all about naming it after Amerigo. Scroll down a bit, you'll see it. Thanks. Shikku27316 (talk) 20:00, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

An entry for the Indian subcontinent?
Clearly a quirk of (Western European) history that Europe is classified as a separate continent when it is geologically part of Asia.

India, on the other hand, is geologically distinct from the rest of Asia, sitting on the Indo-Australian continental plate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.9.33.7 (talk) 05:45, 15 November 2016 (UTC)

How about Pangea?
Someone added Zealandia onto this page, so I'm wondering if we're just going to add the etymology of all the continents that have existed such as Pangea, Godwana, Laurasia, etc. on here? --sion8 talk page 22:50, 6 April 2017 (UTC)

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Zealandia?
Zealandia isn't a continent. It's a large undersea plateau. There is a large difference- although the definition of a continent is up for debate and nobody has a concrete answer, we can agree it's a combination of geography, geology, and human race and culture. Zealandia is just a geological term- and a weak one at that. The entirety of Zealandia isn't even the same orogeny. The people of the so-called continent are divided, without even racial similarities, and the undersea plateau which defines it can hardly be considered contiguous. Putting Zealandia on a list of continents is like putting unicorns on a list of horse breeds. It should be removed- requesting permission. Ivvavik (talk) 01:43, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

Lost Continents (Mythology and Legends)
In the 1954 book Lost Continents by L. Sprague de Camp, he describes many modern writers who have speculated about ancient civilizations that existed on continents now deluged under the sea. According to de Camp, there is no real scientific evidence for any lost continents whatsoever.


 * The most famous lost continent is Atlantis. Atlantis, like Hyperborea and Thule, is ultimately derived from ancient Greek geographic speculation and possibly memories of the Minoan eruption of the Thera volcano.
 * The name of hypothetical vanished continent Mu originated from the first attempted translation of the Madrid Codex, one of only four remaining Maya codices.

- page from List of lost lands

Ideas for a list.


 * Zealandia, a scientifically accepted continent that is now 94% submerged under the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the areas of New Zealand and New Caledonia.


 * Kumari Kandam, a mythical lost continent with an ancient Tamil civilization in the Indian Ocean


 * Lemuria was a hypothesised continent that was believed to have once connected India, Australia and Southern Africa.


 * Mu, a legendary lost continent in the Pacific Ocean Doremon764 (talk) 03:21, 18 June 2021 (UTC)

Europe Semitic etymology
Earlier indicated Western locations within Anatolia, but later Aramaic Yuruba was specific for Hellenic Thrace. Anaximande (talk) 08:37, 17 August 2021 (UTC)