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Geography fun facts and oddities: Difference between revisions
→Name origins: america name
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** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinkhole Sinkhole (wiki)]] | ** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinkhole Sinkhole (wiki)]] | ||
== Name origins == | == Name origins (etymology) == | ||
* etymology is the study of the origin of words | |||
=== Country names === | |||
* Literal Meanings of Country Names map | * Literal Meanings of Country Names map | ||
** a credit card travel service in Australia created a world map showing the "literal translation" of names of every country | ** a credit card travel service in Australia created a world map showing the "literal translation" of names of every country | ||
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*** here [[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12QSXFBOLaNS05EdRXE6FsyBO8Noj-pSkr8LD0yTg3z0/edit#gid=0 a web-based spreadsheet with details of the word origins (etymology)]] from the makers of the map | *** here [[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12QSXFBOLaNS05EdRXE6FsyBO8Noj-pSkr8LD0yTg3z0/edit#gid=0 a web-based spreadsheet with details of the word origins (etymology)]] from the makers of the map | ||
=== America === | === America === | ||
* '''America''' is | [[File:Waldseemuller map 2.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Universalis Cosmographia, Waldseemüller's 1507 world map which was the first to show the Americas separate from Asia (wiki)]] | ||
* '''America''' is named for the Italian explorer and map-maker Amerigo Vespucci | |||
** Vespucci was the first European explorer to recognize that the lands Christopher Columbus discovered were distinct regions from Asia | |||
Click EXPAND for more on Vespucci and the Waldseemüller map which labeled part of the "new world" as "America" | |||
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"> | |||
** Vespucci was from Florence and went on two expeditions to the Americas in 1499 (for Spain) and 1501 (for Portugal) | ** Vespucci was from Florence and went on two expeditions to the Americas in 1499 (for Spain) and 1501 (for Portugal) | ||
** | ** in 1503 and 1505 two accounts of his voyages were published using his name | ||
*** his authorship and many of the details in them is doubted by historians | |||
*** the booklets were wildly popular across Europe | |||
*** Vespucci's accounts were the first to consider the Americas as distinct from Asia (Columbus insisted he had reached the "Indies") | |||
*** Vespucci referred to Brazil, which he visited on his second voyage, as the "New World" | |||
*** in 1507, the German cartographer (map maker) Martin Waldseemüller labeled "America" on a portion of his world map | |||
*** he credited Amerigo Vespucci for the insight | |||
**** the map was the first to show the Americas as distinct continents from Asia | |||
* see | |||
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerigo_Vespucci Amerigo Vespucci (wiki)]] | |||
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Waldseem%C3%BCller#1507_world_map Waldseemüller world map (wiki)]] | |||
</div> | |||
=== Central America === | === Central America === | ||