Meaning of country names.

Greek name  for  greece  hellas-Light of  wisdom

The names of the Basque:

The Basque Country is called Vasconia or simmilar in Latin and other languages. This derives from the ancient tribe of the Vascones, which comprised only part of the Basque-speaking country, and whose ethymology is unknown.

We call our country Euskal Herria: the people or nation of Euskara (the Basque language). Basque is said Euskaldun, meaning Basque-speaker. It's not clear where the term Euskara (also Euskera) derives from. Yet the suffix -era/-ara means "mode" and is commonly used for languages (Gaztelera = Castilian or Spanish, Frantsesera = French, etc.). Yet, if you look at any Basque dictionary you may notice that the only few words that start with eusk- are derivations of the verb eutsi, meaning persist, sustain. I have hypothetized that it should be translated as "the persistent language" or the "sustaining language" but it's just my opinion, nothing more.

Basque names of the 7 provinces:

• Navarre (Nafarroa), originally Nabarra: nabar(-ra) is a common adjective meaning both wide and brown, it probably referred to the geography of the Basque lands south of the Pyrenees.
  
• Lower Navarre (Behenafarroa): no mistery here. Notice that lower is "up" in the map.
• Biscay (Bizakaia): an old word for "the mountain".
• Gipuzkoa, originally also Ipuzkoa. Origin unknown.
• Alava (Araba): some have speculated it could come from the Arabs but it's much more likely that it comes from a Roman town called Alba.
• Labourd (Lapurdi): from the ancient city of Lapurdum, now Bayonne (Baiona)
• Soule (Zuberoa or also Xiberue in their dialect): uncertain.

Some other sub-Pyrenaic Basque names:

• Adour river (Adur): Adur is the magyc floid that is everywhere according to Basque mythology
• Ebro river (Iber): Ibar means river bank in Basque
• Garonne river (Garona): The suffix -on(-a) means "near". Garona would be literally "near the flame" (gar) but it could also be originally "gariona" (near the wheat - gari). Unclear.
• Aragon river and country (Aragoi): high valley. Originally Aragon county was just a valley in the high Pyrennees.
• Aran valley: redoundant name, aran means precisely valley (it can also mean berry and tanned)
• Tolouse (Tolosa): there's another Tolosa in Gipuzkoa. It means twisted, folded. It seems to mean a place where the river is somehow folded with meanders or making a curve.
  
• Many ancient Iberian cities ended (or started) their name in -iri, -uri, -ili, -uli. All those words mean city in Basque but, of course, it should be an Iberian loan. Yet some ancient Iberian cities had names that are perfectly traslatable using Basque, most notably Iliberri (in Rousillon and modern Granada too), which directly translates as "new city".
  

Some Latin American places with Basque ethymology:

• Durango, a major city of Mexico, takes its name from the town of Durango, Biscay, with unclear ethymology (Edur-an-go?, Adur-an-go?, Padur-an-go?... they would mean "from where the..." "snow", "magic floid" and "swamp", respectively)
  
• All "Bolivarian" names, specially Bolivia. Bolibar is a village of Biscay too, from where the surname of El Libertador comes. Here the ethymology is only a little more clear: -ibar means, as mentioned above, river bank. But the role of the Bol- prefix is equally unclear.

Originally posted by Komnenos Niemcy (Polish) and similar in other Slavic languages, apparently from a Slavic word for dumb, not able to speak( the Slavic lang., I suppose)

Yes, it's obviously true but there is a possibility that the word "niemy", which means just "dumb" or "mute" originates from two words "nie"+"my" (which mean  respectively "not"+"we"). These two words are basic in every language and as a result of that they evolve relatively slowly. What I mean is that the Polish word for "Germans" indirectly comes from the words "not" +"we" like in the pattern: nie+my (not+we)=niemy (dumb, mute) and then Niemcy (Germans). I'm not entirely sure about that nevertheless I wouldn't exclude such a possibility.


Edited by Dharmagape

I dunno if someone already wrote the meaning of Afghanistan, but here it is: Afghan- obviously Afghan, and -istan means land. So Afghanista means the land of Afghans, and this can be applied to other countries too. EX. Tajiistan (Tajik-istan), Turkministan, Uzbekistan...

Originally posted by Nagyfejedelem It's interesting. The Hungarian word for Germans is 'n�met', similar to 'n�ma', which means dumb. They are Slavic loan-words in Hungarian, aren't they?

Yes, they are. When I was in Eger and watched weather forecast on Hungarian TV I noticed the similarities between Polish and Hungarian names for some days of week. I'll give you examples:
English                        Hungarian                    Polish (pr. - pronounce)
Wednesday                szerda                          �roda (pr. sh'roda) (sh' - soft s)
Thursday                    csutortok                      czwartek (pr. tchvartek)
Friday                         pentek                          pi�tek (pr. pyontek)
Saturday                    szombat                        sobota

I suppose that there are another similarities as well. To the best of my knowledge the explanation for this lies in the fact that when Magyars came to Panonia and conquered local Slavs they took over some Slavic words. I apologize to all Hungarians for not writing Hungarian diacritics but I truly didn't know how to do it.


Edited by Dharmagape

Spain is derived from Hispania which in Latin means "land of the bunnie rabbits"

Originally posted by Ponce de Leon Spain is derived from Hispania which in Latin means "land of the bunnie rabbits"

It's not that way: Hispania derives from Hesperides, which is a deformation of Hespero (the evening star, that is the West). Spain and nearby areas were the semi-mythic far west of the classical era. Eventually the Iberian peninsula retained the name in exclussive, though with the appearence of a state called Spain in the 16th century (Philip II is the first one that signs as King of Spain), the name largely lost its geographical meaning and was slowly replaced by Iberia, which derives from the river Iber (now Ebro) and ultimately from Basque Ibar (river bank).

Originally posted by Ponce de Leon Spain is derived from Hispania which in Latin means "land of the bunnies"

For a moment, I thought you were talking about Playboy's.

I always thought that Spain derived from a Phoenician word meaning 'the land of hyraxes' because te phoenicians - for some reason - mistook rodents for diminute relatives of elephants.

But sometimes I wonder...there was a people called the Saefes of Sepes in the Iberian Peninsula...what if... 

Originally posted by Lilleman � Norway: Norja, the word means "slender", "fragile", possibly beacuse the landscape there, or the shape of the country? Interesting. I always thought the name of Norway, which is spelled/named Norge by both the norwegians and swedes, meant "the Northern kingdom/realm". 'Nor' (Nord) means 'north' and 'ge' probably means 'rige/rike' which, exactly as in the chase of Sverige (Sweden), means kingdom. The "original" name/word for Norge (Norway) must have been something like Nordrike/Norige.

You are correct. Norge comes from either Noriki or Northvegr, Northern realm/route respectively.

Svear is translated as Swedes, BTW. 'Svensk' and 'svenskar' are just the adjective versions of sveon-svear.