Meaning of country names.

You guys were talking about Egypt earlier.. I know in Turkish it is Misir (which is the same word for "corn" i believe)...

I think It would be better if the US actually got a legit. name.  Take some Native word or something, it getting to have the title of "America" is lame....

Origins of the names hispano (Hispanic).

According to Espasa-Calpe, the Dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy, hispano comes from a mythological character, whose father was Hispalo, one of Hercules� companions who is attributed with having founded the ancient city called Ispalis (or Hispalis). Located on the banks of the Betis River (now the Guadalquivir), Hispalis corresponds to what later became Seville. An important commercial center during the time of the Turdetanians, who came from the ancient city of Turdetania in southern Spain, Hispalis was later a Roman colony under Caesar. Then, under the Goths and Vandals, it became the capital of southern Spain. So the Iberian Peninsula was called Hispania since the Roman era. The word hisp�nico derives from the Latin Hispanicus and the word Espa�a (Spain) stems from the Greek Spania-- a term used first by the Greek geographer Artemidorus as a secondary name for Ispania, which was later changed to Hispania by the Romans. The latter also changed Ispalis to Hispalis. In his Geografia Sacra (1642), the renown French reformist pastor and writer Samuel Bochart explains that if we wish to understand the etymology concerning the word Ispanic, we must look to the language of a people more ancient than the Greeks. He believed Ispania derived from the Phoenician term span, which means "land of rabbits." And, indeed, the reverse side of a coin bearing the image of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who was born in Spain, reveals Spain symbolized by the figure of a seated woman with a rabbit at her feet. Before the arrival of the Romans, the peninsula was called Iberia, which means "running water" [Editor�s note: in Greek] and the Iberians established their towns along the river banks or on land between the rivers.

Alot more at :http://www.hellohola.org/mesones/arewelatinos.html

I've heard of some kind of festival that takes place in Seville that has something to do with Hellines and the foundation of the city. Maybe one of the Spanish in here can give more info about this.

Originally posted by Turan You guys were talking about Egypt earlier.. I know in Turkish it is Misir (which is the same word for "corn" i believe)... I think It would be better if the US actually got a legit. name.  Take some Native word or something, it getting to have the title of "America" is lame....

Canada is just jelous it didn't get that name.

Originally posted by Hellinas Seville was founded according to what most historians assume by Hellines in the 9th cent. BC

I don't believe that any of the archaeological evidance at hand suggests that Greek collonization, that far, started anywhere before 6th century BC.

In any case, Greek colonies in Spain were mostly trading posts, it was the Carthagenians who ruled Spain. In excavations in Spain we find bulks of Carthagenian artifacts and only a few Greek.

What are your sources that suggest Greek presence of that extend?

France is named after the Franks. The Germanic ethinicity that absorbed the others.

 

The "Frank" word means "free people", they were federatis working as mercenaries for the Roman empire. Many of them settled as wanderers in France.

Sometime the southern France is called Occitania, after the language that was once spoken here. Occitan, itself named after the word "oc" meaning yes is the mentioned language in opposition of the French who was using the word "oil". Oc itself is related to "Occident" meaning western in French.

 

My former province is Gascony, named after its people the Gascons, who are Vascons interbreeded with Visigoths (Goth Vascons).

Edited by Exarchus

Originally posted by Infidel Brasil - From pau-brasil, a type of vegetation that covered a large deal of the country, though the portuguese called it firstly the lands of Santa Cruz (Holy Cross) and Vera Cruz (True Cross).

 

Actually, the coutry Brasil was name after a legendary island that was suposed to exist in the middle of the Atlantic. You can find some pre-expansion maps that show that. When the portuguese reached Brasil, they concluded that there was no island after all, but the name caught on...

Isle of Man comes from the Celtic god Manannan Mac Lir.(A cletic/Welsh sea god.)

Russia comes from the Rus (which is what the native people calledf the viking explorers and later settlers).

Ireland (in myth) comes from when the Milesians fist came to take the land away from the current gods/people they came across 3 goddessess (Banba, Fotla, and Eriu) the 3rd being the name we use now.

interesting that china recognize Macedonia as diferent from "hellenic" world coz there are 2 names for the two different nations.

Ma Qi Dun : Macedonia
Xi La: From Hellas

and about the origin of the name hellens ...
helen - from xelen - from kselen - k selen
k - kaj - where ..
selen - moved - migrated - setled

so they got the name from the tribes that were here before dorians and ioninas arived ... and they gived tham the name settled here - k seleni that later those tribes took as their national name and transformed it to their language - kselen - xelen - helen

And there are 3-4 varians of the origin of the name Macedonia, and if there is some interest, i wuld write it here :}

i'm not really sure that this is a true origin, Brasil might come from Hy-Braesail.
it was a celtic elysium.

like i said it is probobly not it's true origin though. just thought it was interesting

Bulgaria from Bulgars. But what does it mean.... I am not sure. I think I heard somewhere that it's a greek word which means something like ....barbarian?????

Sofia /our capital/ from St. Sofia. who had three daughters - Hope, Love and Belief