Etymology of Africa
Many people think that the continent name ‘Africa’ comes from Ifriqia, the old name of Tunisia which also means ‘The separator’, because it separates the orient from the Magreb. However, Romans used to call Tunisia ‘Africa’ too; so what’s wrong?
Something is sure, is that the name is “Tunisian”, but it’s not Arabic. Here’s the Wikipedia’s theory:
The Afri were a tribe — possibly Berber — who dwelt in North Africa in the Carthage area. The origin of Afer may be connected with Phoenician `afar, dust (also found in most other Semitic languages). Some other etymologies that have been postulated for the ancient name ‘Africa’ that are much more debatable include:
- the Latin word aprica, meaning “sunny”;
- the Greek word aphrike, meaning “without cold” (see also List of traditional Greek place names). The historian Leo Africanus (1495-1554) attributed the origin to the Greek word phrike (meaning “cold and horror”), combined with the negating prefix a-, so meaning a land free of cold and horror. However, the change of sound from ph to f in Greek is datable to about the Xth century, so this is unlikely to be the origin.
March 29th, 2006 at 8:10 pm
Thank you for this interesting piece of information. The romans too glorified the name Africa.
http://thysdrus.blogspot.com/2005/02/goddess-africa.html#comments
http://thysdrus.blogspot.com/2005/02/house-of-africa.html#comments
March 30th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
The doubt started when I learned about Avstralopithecvs Africanvs, Scipio (major et minor) Africanvs, and Leo Africanvs many centuries later.
By the way, Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major was the defeater of Hannibal
April 2nd, 2006 at 5:32 pm
[…] Swobodin writes about the name of Africa, which comes from Ifriqia, the old name of Tunisia, which also means ‘The Seperator’. He states that even the Romans used to call Tunisia ‘Africa’ and goes on to explain where the name came from. […]
April 28th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
It is ridiculous to suggest that the name africa originated with african north of the sahara or within the continent for that matter.The various civilizations had no concepts of a continent in this dispensation.
The etymology of the word is greek ‘afronos'’ meaning uncouph,unlettered and stupid.I am inclined to believe this source in view of the other descirptions of the continent as the dark continent,third world etc.You will be naive to believe otherwise.
suffice I to say that it is equally not coincidental that there areonly two races who are defined solely by color-white and black and neither of which is accurate/.caucasians(originated from caucauses mountain and may be described as beige or black to be academically honest and sub-saharan african are not really black/