ORIGIN OF PLACE NAMES.

Bruce Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 89, 8 December 1913, Page 1

ORIGIN OF PLACE NAMES.

ASIA, "LAND"OF THE DAWN." Asia, the oldest continent known to /man, gets its name from the oanskrit work meaning "lanu.of the dawn." Europe is derived from the Greek w'oiils"meaning v 'the broad face of the earth." Some scholars, however, believe that the name comes from the Hebrew word meaning "th 4 land of the setting sun." The ancient people of the East knew little of Europe, save that it was the land where the' sun set, so they - might 1 have called' Tand of tho ' setting sun." Algiers is a newer spelling of the . Arabic name "Al Jezair," meaning "the peninsula." Arabia, which stands for "Arab-ia," means "men of the desert." Austria is the modern form of the name given to that country bj, Charlemagne, •"Oesterreich," which meant "Eastern Kingdom," so-called to distinguish it from Charlemagne's empire in \Vesteru Europe. "China;," the'name''we give to a great empire in the Ear East 4 is not the name used by the people of that country. Indeed, the name "China" is ; never heard in that land, where various ,■; naves are given to territories which make up their empire. The word ie believed to have come from "Tsina," the "Land of Tsin," and named from the ruler who built the great wall'of'China. The country used to be known to the English-speaking world as "Cathay." France is the modern name x>f the country which used to be called Gaul, shortened from the Greek name "Galatia." The Gauls were...tbe original possessors of the .land, but the Franks, moving out of the German province of Franconia, conquered the land and called it France, or "Frankreich." Germany was formerly called "Inonges," but the .Romans borrowed a word from the Gauls, meaning neighbors,:'and gave it a Roman form—""Geririanus."' Holland comes from the old Danish name "Ollant," meaning "marshy ground." Italy got its name from a king by the name of'ltalus, who once ruled over that part of the world. Japan is a word never heard in- the.,land we call by that name. The Japanese name for their country is Nippon, which means "land of the rising sun." Russia takes its name from a tribe called the Russ, which seized the land long ago. Spain is the English form given to the country, "Hispania" or "Espane." The name comes from an old-time word. "Span," meaning rabbit. The Carthaginians found the- country overrun by those animals, and called the land after tnem.