Here is a list compiled by the Oxford Dictionaries Online of all the countries in the world today.
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2016 ... e-origins/
I haven't read them all, but I did notice that certain bits could be better. For example, if a country is named after a river, where'd the river get its name?
Country Name Origins
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Country Name Origins
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Re: Country Name Origins
Are these etymologies really from the Oxford English Dictionary?
If so, how the mighty have fallen. Consider Australia:
It is explained as follows:
Imagining the existence of a land located in the Southern hemisphere, the Greeks came up with the name Terra Australis Incognita, meaning ‘Unknown Southern Land’.
Are we to believe the Greeks come up with this phrase for the theoretical land in the south? I can believe the Greeks came up with the idea (Wikipedia credits Aristotle) but I can't believe he called it "Terra Australis Incognita" It doesn't sound like Greek to me.
If so, how the mighty have fallen. Consider Australia:
It is explained as follows:
Imagining the existence of a land located in the Southern hemisphere, the Greeks came up with the name Terra Australis Incognita, meaning ‘Unknown Southern Land’.
Are we to believe the Greeks come up with this phrase for the theoretical land in the south? I can believe the Greeks came up with the idea (Wikipedia credits Aristotle) but I can't believe he called it "Terra Australis Incognita" It doesn't sound like Greek to me.
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