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All Parts of the World. Why are they called so

The relief of the earth's surface

The surface of the lithosphere consists of continents and oceanic depressions. The continent is a geological and geomorphological concept. It means large protrusions of the surface of the lithosphere as opposed to oceanic depressions. The continents have an underwater continuation (the continental shelf). The continental slope belongs simultaneously to the mainland and the oceanic basin. Continental islands are also part of the mainland. There are six continents: Eurasia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia and Antarctica.

A continent (from Latin continents - continuous, continuous) is a large, continuous landmass not separated by a sea. There are four continents: the Old World, the New World, Australia and Antarctica. The rest of the land, not included in the continents, therefore, belongs to the islands. The whole point of the term "continent" is to be opposed to the concept of "island". The opposite of these concepts is relative, the difference between them is purely quantitative, but since the largest island (Greenland) is four times smaller than the smallest continent (Australia), the expediency of such a division is beyond doubt.

The Old World - Eurasia and Africa, the New World make up both Americas.

All land is made up of continents and islands.

The land is conditionally divided into parts of the world. Part of the world - the concept of historical tradition. Unlike continents and continents, parts of the world cover the entire land, that is, including oceanic islands, each of them must be assigned to any part of the world. There are six parts of the world (Europe, Asia, America, Australia, Antarctica) or seven, if Oceania is called as a special part of the world - the islands of the Pacific Ocean, which do not "gravitate" equally to any of the other parts of the world. The division into parts of the world has a practical meaning for world geographical descriptions, atlases, reference books, as the basis for groupings of states, units of administrative-territorial division and natural or political boundaries. These "parts of the world", of course, have no qualitative content.

For a clear assimilation of these concepts, it is necessary to understand the following provisions:

the surface surface of the continents is divided into two parts - continental and insular;
the continental parts of the surface of the continents, not separated by the waters of the oceans, constitute one continent;
the border between continents cannot be on land;
the border between the continents on land runs along the isthmuses: Panama and Suez;
the area of a continent is the sum of the continental parts of the above-water surfaces included in this continent of continents;
any part of the world (except for that of Oceania) consists of continental and insular parts;
the total area of oceanic islands is equal to the land area minus the surface area of the continents.

Asia - from the Assyrian Asi - sunrise (Sun, east), as opposed to Irib or Ereb - darkness (sunset, west).

Europe . The words "Asia", "Europe" as the names of the continents arose during the time of Greek culture.

Africa - the ancient Egyptians and Greeks called Libya. Later, the Romans began to call it Africa by the name of the Afri tribes, or Afrikos - the land of Afri; later, when the sea route around Africa was discovered, this name spread to the entire mainland.

Australia - lat. australis - southern. The mainland has been called that since 1798. This name was given by the English navigator Flinders. Prior to this, until the XVI century. it was called Terra Australis incognito - the unknown southern land. In 1606 Wil Janz called it New Holland, Tasman - Van Diemen's Land, in 1700 James Cook named it New South Wales.

Antarctica , Antarctica - south polar, from the Greek words anti - against, arcticos - north (from arctos - bear).

America - there are two versions. 1. From Amerric - the name of the tribe that lived on the coast of Lake. Nicaragua - in the mountainous region of the Sierra Amerric. This tribe attracted the attention of the Spaniards, who believed that gold was being mined on its land. 2. By the name of Amerigo Vespucci, a member of one of the expeditions and who described the new lands in detail. The name has existed since 1507. Martin Waldseemüller gave his mainland in the book "Introduction to Cosmography" for Central and South America. The name was extended to North America by Gerhard Mercator in 1538. From the 16th century. this name is approved for both continents.

Atlantic Ocean. The name is first encountered by the Greek historian Herodotus (V century BC) - "the sea behind the pillars of Hercules (Atlanta)". The Roman Pliny (1st century AD) gave him the name Oceanus Atlanticus. At different times, different authors called the Western Ocean, the North Sea, the Outer Sea. From the middle of the XVII century. the entire water area of the ocean became known as the Atlantic Ocean.

Pacific Ocean. In 1513, the Spanish conquistador Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and came to the shore of an unknown ocean. Since the waters extended to the south, the ocean was called the South. In 1520, Fernando Magellan crossed the ocean from Tierra del Fuego to the Philippine Islands in good weather, which is why the ocean was named Pacific. In the XVIII century. at the suggestion of the French geographer J.N. Byuash the largest ocean was called the Great. On Russian maps until 1917, the name given by explorers was used - the Eastern Ocean.

Indian Ocean. The ancient Greeks called the western part of the ocean the Erythrean Sea - the "Red Sea" (erythros Greek red). In the IV century. BC e. in the time of Alexander the Great sounded "Indicos - Pelagos" - the Indian Sea. In the 1st century n. e. The Roman Pliny gave the name Oceanus Indicus - the Indian Ocean.

Melanesia (Greek melas black, nesos - island) - Black Island. This name was proposed by Europeans in the second half of the 19th century. for the black color of the skin of the population. Now these are islands and archipelagos in the southwestern part of the Pacific Ocean.

Micronesia (Greek micros - small, nesos - island) - small islands in the western part of the Pacific Ocean north of the equator.

Polynesia (Greek polis a lot, carrying islands) - a multi-island. Islands and archipelagos in the Central Pacific.

All the names of parts of the world have their own history, and all these names have different origins. Europe is a corruption of the Phoenician word "Irip", or "Erep", which means "west".
The name of Asia comes from the ancient Semitic word Asu, meaning "sunrise".
In ancient times, in the days of Carthage, Africa was called Libya. But the Romans called one of the tribes that inhabited this mainland, "Afri". Then the name of the tribe was transferred to the entire mainland, and a new word arose, "Africa".
Australia also had a different name at first. It was discovered by the Dutch navigator Willem Jansen and named New Holland. Later, James Cook's companions renamed it Australia, which means "South".
The name "Antarctica" consists of two words: "anti" and "arktos". Arktos is Greek for "bear". According to the constellation Ursa Major, the ancient Greeks found the north. Hence the name of the northern polar regions - the Arctic. Anti means "against". Therefore, Antarctica, Antarctica is "the land that is opposite the Arctic."
How the name of America came about, you, perhaps, know yourself. Just in case, I'll tell you about it. The first to reach the shores of this mainland was Christopher Columbus. He did not suspect that before him was a new, still unknown land, and he was sure that he had reached India by the western route.
In fairness, the mainland should have been named after Columbus, but was named "America" in honor of Amerigo Vespucci, who sailed there after Columbus.

April 29th, 2013

The history of the name of each of the continents is very interesting. Why is Asia called Asia and Antarctica is called Antarctica? The origin of some names is connected with ancient myths - the merit of the ancient Greeks in the etymology of many words, including their own names, is very great. For example, Europe is a mythical heroine that appeared thanks to the boundless imagination of the ancient Greeks, who composed an incredible number of myths.

Why is Europe called Europe?

There are several versions. Here is one of the most common.

In the place where the state of Lebanon is now located, Phoenicia was located in ancient times. According to ancient Greek myths, the god Zeus fell in love with an insanely beautiful earthly woman named Europa. Historians suggest that the word "Europe" in Phoenician meant "sunset" (the word itself is most likely Assyrian).

Beauty Europa was the daughter of Agenor, king of Phoenicia. The Thunderer Zeus wished to make Europe his wife, but King Agenor would not allow this. Zeus had no choice but to kidnap the beauty.

Turning into a white bull, Zeus stole Europa and transported her to the island of Crete. Later, according to some myths, Europe became the wife of the Cretan king. That is why the inhabitants of Crete began to call their land Europe.

"The Abduction of Europe", V. Serov, 1910

In the 5th century BC, the name Europe spread to all of Greece. Gradually, gaining new knowledge about the world around us and traveling more and more, ancient people pushed back the borders of Europe. And only in the middle of the 18th century the final borders of Europe were established, which are also marked on modern geographical maps.

Perhaps that is exactly what happened, and Europe was called Europe in honor of the heroine of ancient Greek myths. In any case, this is a very interesting and curious version.

Why is Asia called Asia?

The name "Asia" in relation to the continent also appeared thanks to the ancient Greeks and their myths. However, the word "asia" itself is Assyrian, translated as "sunrise". Now it is clear why the largest part of the world was called Asia, because it is there that the sun rises.

The word "Asia" among the Assyrians was just a word, but it became the name of a part of the world thanks to the Greeks. In ancient Greek mythology, there is a titan god named Oceanus. Asia (Asia) is his oceanid daughter, whom the Greeks themselves depicted riding a camel. In her hands were a shield and a box of fragrant spices. In some versions of the myths, Asia is the mother (and in some - the wife) of Prometheus himself - the very hero who brought fire to people.

G. Dore "Oceanides", 1860

Everything east of Europe and closer to the place where the sun rises, the ancient Greeks began to call Asia. The Scythians, who lived beyond the Caspian Sea, the Greeks called the Asians. And the ancient Romans, by the way, called the inhabitants of their eastern province Asians.

When the period of great geographical discoveries began, it was decided to use the word "Asia" to refer to vast lands located closer to sunrise (that is, to the east). Thus, we owe the appearance on the map of a part of the world called Asia to the Assyrians and the ancient Greeks.

Did ancient Greek mythology influence the name of any other part of the world? Yes! And that part of the world is Antarctica.

How did Antarctica get its name?

Antarctica is derived from the word "Antarctica". The south polar region was named Antarctica. Translated from Greek, Antarctica means "opposite to the Arctic", because the name "Arctic" appeared earlier as a designation of the area adjacent to the North Pole. It is the word "Arctic" that is directly related to ancient Greek mythology.

The Thunderer Zeus fell in love with the nymph Callisto, but the envious gods could not see how happy Zeus and Callisto were and turned the pregnant woman into a bear. After that, she gave birth to a son. Arkad, that was the name of the son (in Greek, the bear is arktos), grew up without a mother. Once, while hunting, he swung a spear at his mother, the bear Callisto (of course, he did not know who she was). Seeing this, Zeus turned both creatures dear to him into constellations - this is how Ursa Major and Ursa Minor appeared.

These constellations helped to find the polar star, which always points north. Therefore, the ancient Greeks began to call the entire northern region the Arctic. Then came the name Antarctica (the opposite of the Arctic). Well, later the word Antarctica appeared - the sixth part of the world, the southern mainland at the very pole of the Earth.

This part of the world was discovered by Russian sailors under the command of Thaddeus Bellingshausen on January 28, 1820. True, this is the official date - it was then that the sailors saw the "ice mainland". A year later, the sailors saw the shore and called this area the Land of Alexander the First. However, this name never spread to the entire mainland, which eventually received the name Antarctica, associated with ancient Greece.

So, the three parts of the world - Europe, Asia and Antarctica - got their names thanks to ancient Greek myths. But how did the names of other parts of the world and continents come about?

Even children know that America was discovered by Christopher Columbus. Then why was this part of the world not called Columbia or Columbia? And what is the origin of the name America?

Christopher Columbus, of course, discovered America, but at the same time he himself did not know that he had discovered a new part of the world, believing that the land on the other side of the Atlantic was China (Katay, as it was called in the time of Columbus).

Columbus still became famous for centuries. But much less often they talk about the Florentine navigator, who lived at the same time as Columbus, but was younger than him. Amerigo made four trips to the western shores of the Atlantic Ocean, but two of them are considered by historians to be nothing more than a hoax. However, at least one journey was in fact - Amerigo made it in 1501-1502 to the shores of Brazil.

Vespucci himself proposed to call the land he discovered new world, but in 1507, a Lorraine cartographer named Martin Waldseemüller decided to map a new land and name it in honor of the "discoverer" - Amerigo Vespucci. After all, reading Amerigo's notes, many have come to the conclusion that Vespucci discovered some new continent that has nothing to do with China, discovered by Columbus on the other side of the Atlantic.

However, not much time passed, and geographers-cartographers concluded that both Columbus and Vespucci discovered the same continent. Cartographers left for him the name " America”, dividing it into North and South.

Thus, already in 1538, North America and South America appeared on the maps. However, until the end of the 17th century, that is, another two and a half centuries, these lands in Europe continued to be called the New World. But, as we know, the name America was officially recognized.

Stefan Zweig called this whole story a comedy of errors, and A. Humboldt dubbed the very name of this part of the world "a monument to human injustice." No wonder they say that Columbus was lucky alternately: “he went to discover one, found another, but what he found was given the name of the third.”

Australia, the fifth continent, was discovered in the early 17th century by the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon. Since then, this part of the world has appeared on maps, but under the name of New Holland. However, the borders of the continent were unknown at that time. How australia name changed its own, ceasing to be just New Holland?

Australia. Shot from space

The answer must be sought in the mists of time. Australia was talked about long before it was discovered. Even the great Ptolemy was sure that there was a huge continent in the southern hemisphere, which should “balance” the planet. For the mysterious land, which either exists or does not exist, a conditional name has been assigned Terra Australis Incognita, which in Latin means "Mysterious (or Unknown) Southern Land."

The British in the 18-19 centuries were actively engaged in the search for the Mysterious South Land or New Holland. And, finally, James Cook and Matthew Flinders, having made several voyages, contributed to the fact that the shores of the fifth continent appeared on the maps.

Flinders was the first to circumnavigate the mainland. He wrote that he was shackled by the name Terra Australis (Southern Land), but with great pleasure he would have called the mainland in a different way -. So, with the light hand of Flinders, this continent began to be called Australia, because the option proposed by the navigator seemed very, very successful to the learned cartographers and geographers.

Why is Africa called Africa?
There is no exact and only accepted answer to this question. There are many theories, each of which has the right to life. Let's give just a few.

How the name "Africa" appeared: the first version. The name "Africa" was coined by the Greco-Romans. The territory of North Africa to the west of Egypt, the ancient Greeks and Romans for a long time called Libya, because there lived tribes, which the Romans called "Livs". Everything south of Libya was called Ethiopia.

In 146 BC, Rome defeated Carthage. A colony was founded on the territory captured as a result of the war, on which Tunisia is now located. This colony was given the name "Africa", as the local warlike tribes of the Afariks lived in these places. According to another theory, the inhabitants of Carthage themselves called people who did not live in cities the word "afri", which is supposedly derived from the Phoenician afar (dust). The Romans, having defeated Carthage, used the word "afri" for the name of the colony. Gradually, Africa began to call all the other lands of this continent.

The ruins of one of the cities of the state of Carthage

How the name "Africa" appeared: version two. The name "Africa" was coined by the Arabs. Arab geographers have long known that Asia and Africa are separated from each other by the Red Sea. The Arabic word "faraka" is translated as "separate", "separate one from the other."

From the word farak, the Arabs formed the word "Ifriqiya" - that is how they called the fourth continent (the ancient name can be translated as "Separated"). The well-known Arab scholar of the 16th century Muhammad al-Wazan wrote about this. Later, Ifriqiya turned into Africa, which was associated with the peculiarities of borrowing foreign names in different languages.

And also find out if it is true and true that The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -

Why is Europe called Europe?

There are several versions. Here is one of the most common.

Beauty Europa was the daughter of Agenor, king of Phoenicia. The Thunderer Zeus wished to make Europe his wife, but King Agenor would not allow this. Zeus had no choice but to kidnap the beauty.

"The Abduction of Europe", V. Serov, 1910

Perhaps that is exactly what happened, and Europe was called Europe in honor of the heroine of ancient Greek myths. In any case, this is a very interesting and curious version.

Why is Asia called Asia?

The word "Asia" among the Assyrians was just a word, but it became the name of a part of the world thanks to the Greeks. In ancient Greek mythology, there is a titan god named Oceanus. Asia (Asia) - his daughter-oceanid, whom the Greeks themselves depicted riding a camel. In her hands were a shield and a box of fragrant spices. In some versions of the myths, Asia is the mother (and in some - the wife) of Prometheus himself - the very hero who brought fire to people.

G. Dore "Oceanides", 1860
Everything east of Europe and closer to the place where the sun rises, the ancient Greeks began to call Asia. The Scythians, who lived beyond the Caspian Sea, the Greeks called the Asians. And the ancient Romans, by the way, called the inhabitants of their eastern province Asians.

Did ancient Greek mythology influence the name of any other part of the world? Yes! And that part of the world is Antarctica.

How did Antarctica get its name?

Antarctica is a derivative of the word "Antarctica". The south polar region was named Antarctica. Translated from Greek, Antarctica means "opposite to the Arctic", because the name "Arctic" appeared earlier as a designation of the area adjacent to the North Pole. It is the word "Arctic" that is directly related to ancient Greek mythology.

The Thunderer Zeus fell in love with the nymph Callisto, but the envious gods could not see how happy Zeus and Callisto were and turned the pregnant woman into a bear. After that, she gave birth to a son. Arkad, that was the name of his son (in Greek, bear - arktos), grew up without a mother. Once, while hunting, he swung a spear at his mother, the bear Callisto (of course, he did not know who she was). Seeing this, Zeus turned both creatures dear to him into constellations - this is how Ursa Major and Ursa Minor appeared.

This part of the world was discovered by Russian sailors under the command of Thaddeus Bellingshausen on January 28, 1820. True, this is the official date - it was then that the sailors saw the "ice continent". A year later, the sailors saw the shore and called this area the Land of Alexander the First. However, this name never spread to the entire mainland, which eventually received the name Antarctica, associated with ancient Greece.

So, the three parts of the world - Europe, Asia and Antarctica - got their names thanks to ancient Greek myths. But how did the names of other parts of the world and continents come about?

Even children know that America was discovered by Christopher Columbus. Then why was this part of the world not called Columbia or Columbia? And what is the origin of the name America?

Returning, Amerigo Vespucci began to colorfully describe the course of the trip and his impressions, sending these notes by letters to his friends and banker Lorenzo Medici. After some time, Vespucci's letters were published and were a huge success with readers.

Vespucci himself proposed to call the land he discovered new world, but in 1507, a Lorraine cartographer named Martin Waldseemüller decided to map a new land and name it in honor of the "discoverer" - Amerigo Vespucci. After all, reading Amerigo's notes, many have come to the conclusion that Vespucci discovered some new continent that has nothing to do with China, discovered by Columbus on the other side of the Atlantic.

Australia - the fifth continent - was discovered at the beginning of the 17th century by the Dutch navigator Willem Jansson. Since then, this part of the world has appeared on maps, but under the name of New Holland. However, the borders of the continent were unknown at that time. How australia name changed its own, ceasing to be just New Holland?
Australia. Shot from space

Flinders was the first to circumnavigate the mainland. He wrote that he was constrained by the name Terra Australis (Southern Land), but with great pleasure he would have called the mainland in a different way -. So, with the light hand of Flinders, this continent began to be called Australia, because the option proposed by the navigator seemed very, very successful to the learned cartographers and geographers.

Matthew Flinders, author of the famous book "Journey to Terra Australis»