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Amerigo Vespucci. The naming of the Americas, or America, occurred shortly after Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the Americas in 1492. 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.
The CIA World Factbook says "The name Samoa is composed of two parts, 'sa', meaning sacred, and 'moa', meaning center, so the name can mean Holy Center; alternately, it can mean 'place of the sacred moa bird' of Polynesian mythology." [113] "American" is ultimately derived from Amerigo Vespucci. [114]
The earliest known use of the name "America" dates to 1505, when German poet Matthias Ringmann used it in a poem about the New World. [2] The word is a Latinized form of the first name of Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who first proposed that the West Indies discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 were part of a previously unknown landmass, rather than the eastern limit of Asia.
"America" derives from Americus, the Latin version of Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci's first name. The feminine form America was originally used to refer to the newly discovered continent, which is why it was accorded with the feminine names of the other continents: Asia , Africa , and Europa .
The meaning of the word American in the English language varies according to the historical, geographical, and political context in which it is used.American is derived from America, a term originally denoting all of the Americas (also called the Western Hemisphere), ultimately derived from the name of the Florentine explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci (1451–1512).
The first documented use of the phrase "United States of America" is a letter from January 2, 1776. Stephen Moylan, a Continental Army aide to General George Washington, wrote to Joseph Reed, Washington's aide-de-camp, seeking to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the Revolutionary War effort.
Abyssinia, a former name: Uncertain meaning. Latinized in 1735 from a Portuguese corruption Abassia [39] of the Arabic al-Ḥabašah ( الحبشة ), [200] from Ge'ez Ḥabbaśā ( ሐበሻ) or Ḥabaśā ( ሐበሣ ), first attested in 2nd- or 3rd-century engravings as Ḥbś or Ḥbštm ( ሐበሠ ), [201] of unknown origin.
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. Africa terra means "land of the Afri" (plural, or "Afer" singular), referring to the Afri tribe, who dwelt in Northern Africa around the area of ...