Countries of the World - Amazing Etymology

UZBEKISTAN. "Land of the Uzbeks." Possibly derived from the name of the Golden Horde khan Uzbek.

UGANDA - from the early "Buganda," "land of the people," the ethnonym of the dominant people in this area.

UKRAINE - from the Slavic "borderland." Used in the sense of "outskirts" since the late 12th century for part of the southwestern lands of Ancient Rus. Later, its boundaries of application expanded. A number of Ukrainian historians suggest that Ukraine comes from the word "країна" ("country"), and the prefix "у" means "one's own."

F

FIJI - from the Tongan name for the islands 'Viti.'

PHILIPPINES - from the name of the islands on which the country is located. "Land of King Philip" (the Spanish monarch in the 16th century).

Magellan discovered them in 1521 on the day of Saint Lazarus, thus naming them San-Lazaro. However, 20 years later, the commander of the Spanish expedition Ruy Lopez Villalobos renamed the islands in honor of the heir to the Spanish throne — Philip.

FINLAND - from the German Fennland, possibly from a root meaning "wanderers." Suomi, the name used by the indigenous people, may come from a Baltic word meaning "land."

FRANCE - "land of the Franks," literally "land of free people." The country was previously known as Gaul from the Celtic tribe. The word "Frank" was widely used in speech after the fall of Rome in the Middle Ages, and after the coronation of Hugh Capet, it became customary in the kingdom of Francia, which later became France.

X

CROATIA - unknown, generally believed to have originated from the Sarmatian language.

CH

MONTENEGRO - named by Venetian conquerors montenegro, "black mountain" due to the appearance of Mount Lovcen or, more likely, because of its dark coniferous forests. Crna Gora, the modern local name for the country, is a literal translation of Montenegro. (Note: "mountain" in Serbian means "forest on the mountains," so the country's name more likely means "black forest.") The country was previously known as "Zeta," Dioclea (in Serbo-Croatian Duklia), and Doclea (Doclea). Doclea was the name of the area in the early Roman Empire, given to an ancient tribe. In subsequent centuries, the Romans transformed Doclea into Dioclea, mistakenly believing that the I was lost due to speech peculiarities. The early Slavic name Zeta comes from the name of a river in Montenegro, which in turn comes from a root meaning "harvest" or "grain." (Contrary to popular belief: Montenegro did not come from Italian, as "black mountain" in Italian is monte nero without g.)

CHILE - unknown. Possibly from the Aracaunian name "depths," referring to the fact that the Andes rise above the narrow coastal plain. Another possible origin of "Chile" could be "end of the world" in the language of the Qechua people.

There are a number of countries whose names are related to a dish or some product. Chile is just from this list, and many may think that the name came from the hot pepper. However, the word "Chilli" in the Mapuche language means "where the land ends." Perhaps the local Mapuche people traveled west from Argentina and discovered that the continent ends on Chilean shores facing the Pacific Ocean? Another possible origin is "chili-chili," imitating a bird's cry in Mapuche. Spanish conquistadors heard all these stories from the Incas.

Upon returning to Europe, they called themselves "men of Chile."

CZECHOSLOVAKIA. A lively debate arose after the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, which had been governed by a communist regime for the past 30 years, collapsed during the "Velvet Revolution," which occurred bloodlessly. Local politicians began to build a new democracy and come up with a name for it.

The first idea was to remove the word "socialist." The new country would be known as the "Czechoslovak Republic." But Slovak politicians did not like this idea, as it placed them in second place, diminishing the importance of Slovakia. They wanted to add a hyphen, as it would symbolize the connection.

The new proposed name for the country looked like this: "Czecho-Slovak Republic." But this was not liked by the Czechs, who hated it. Even Winston Churchill himself did not like its use: "the hyphen should be regarded as a stain to be avoided at the first opportunity." As a result, discussions about defining the name of the country began again. It came to the point that in 1993 it was decided that the best solution would be simply to divide the two countries. As a result, two independent countries emerged with their own names — the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

SH

SWITZERLAND - from the canton of Schwyz, which was the core of the first union of the local regions in 1291. Possibly, the name originally derived from the German "Schweitz," meaning "swamp."

SWEDEN - "people of Svea." The exact development of the ethnonym is unknown, but at least it is known that it originated from the Old Norse "Svithjoth," with the origin of "Svi," "thjoth" from the German "folk" ("people").

The term Svithjoth was originally used to denote various regions found in Scandinavian mythology, including areas in Scandinavia and/or modern Russia. The unclear manner of using this toponym suggests that it was used for areas generally unknown, but certainly beyond the northern or western boundary of what the Goths, the most frequent users of the term, considered the zone of civilization. The derived name 'Svear rike' ("Kingdom of Svea") seems to have appeared after the northern people Heruli were displaced from the Gothic kingdom to southern Scandinavia. It would be logical to assume that the Heruli, displaced beyond the northern borders of the Gothic kingdom, could have taken the traditional name "Svea." Eventually, they also conquered the Goths, and from that moment modern scholars can speak of the existence of Sweden, rather than one of its constituent territories.

SRI LANKA - "shining island" in Sanskrit or "glorious blessed land." Until 1972, the country (as well as the island) was called Ceylon. This modified Sanskrit name Sinhala (from the ethnonym "Singhalese," which translates as "lion's"). Serendip - an ancient name derived from Sinhala-dweepa in Sanskrit meaning either "land of lions" or "land of the Sinhala people," with sinha meaning "lion" in Sanskrit, Sinhala being the early settlers of this area.

Ceylon (Ceylon - English, Cilan - Portuguese, Seilan) - preceding names of the country, also meaning "land of lions."

E

ECUADOR - "equator" in Spanish.

EQUATORIAL GUINEA - "equatorial" - from geographical location, "Guinea," - possibly from the word "aguinaoui" in the Berber language, meaning "black."

ERITREA - named by Italian colonizers, from the ancient Greek name for the Red Sea "Erythrea Thalassa."

ESTONIA - from the German "eastern way." It is commonly mistakenly believed that the name originated from Aestia in ancient Greek sources, but in fact, Aestia is modern Masuria in Poland and possibly the name comes from a Baltic root meaning "variegated," as this land is dotted with lakes.

ETHIOPIA - from Latin "Aethiopia," meaning "land of the blacks." The root of the word in Greek comes from aithein "to burn" and ops "face." The old name Abyssinia came from Arabic "mixed," reflecting the many peoples inhabiting the country.

Y

JAMAICA - in the language of the indigenous people "Hamaica" means land of wood and water or possibly land of springs.

JAPAN - "ribenguo" in Chinese or "land of the rising sun," which marks the fact that Japan lies east of China (where the sun rises). Japanese scholars borrowed the term, simplifying Nippon-gu to Nihon-gu to just Nihon or Nippon ("origin of the sun").

The name "Nippon" appeared in the 7th century AD (before that — Yamato). Written in Chinese characters, it reads "zhi ben" and translates as "rising sun" (which is geographically accurate, as Japan is located east of China).

In various European languages, "zhi ben" transformed into "japan," "japon," "japonia," and so on.