# El nombre de tu país ¿qué significa?



## Reili

Me pregunté eso porque me acordé de Chile, entonces me quedé pensando porqué le habrán puesto así, luego Argentina  . Yo tenía una vaga idea de lo que significa "México".

Este sitio me pareció interesante y muestra varias teorías acerca del significado y origen de "México".
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rjsalvad/scmfaq/mexname.html


Me encontré otro sitio de etimologías y dice que "Argentina" proviene del latín "Argentum" = Plata
http://etimologias.dechile.net/?argentina


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## asm

Argentina viene, si no mal entiendo de Argentum, el nombre latino de la plata. Seguramente recordaras tus lecciones de quimica (no de historia ni de etimologias) en el que te ensenaron que Ag es plata. En el internet dicen que Argentina es "tierra de plata".

Por alguna razon historica esa region de Sud America la relacionaron con la plata (Rio de la plata, etc), al parecer por la plata que los espanoles encontraron ahi (no precisamente en minas, sino en los adornos de los indigenas); tambien oi una historia de que el rio de la plata tenia un cierto brillo (plateado) que les hizo pensar (desear) que ahi habia plata (el metal, no el dinero).
Quizas algunos de los amigos argentinos, que seguramente ahora estan de pachanga "en el cuarto de junto", vendran a decirnos la verdad.

Salud(os)




			
				Reili said:
			
		

> Me pregunté eso porque me acordé de Chile, entonces me quedé pensando porqué le habrán puesto así, luego Argentina  . Yo tenía una vaga idea de lo que significa "México".
> 
> Este sitio me pareció interesante y muestra varias teorías acerca del significado y origen de "México".
> http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rjsalvad/scmfaq/mexname.html


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## jorge_val_ribera

¡Hola!

Bueno, el nombre de Bolivia viene de Simón Bolívar, el libertador de América. Él nos condujo a la independencia en 1825 y fue nuestro primer presidente. En su honor, el país fue llamado "República de Bolívar", que luego se transformó en "República de Bolivia".

¡Saludos!


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## Reili

Bueno esto se pone interesante, ya de paso ¿cuál es el nombre oficial de tu país?

Nombre oficial de México: Estados Unidos Mexicanos

También se le llama "República Mexicana"


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## jorge_val_ribera

El nombre oficial de mi país es República de Bolivia.


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## Mita

Reili, en el mismo sitio que diste, aparece la etimología de Chile:
http://etimologias.dechile.net/?chile
Tendré cuidado cuando diga "Chile" frente a algún mexicano jeje 
Nuestro nombre oficial es "República de Chile".
Saludos


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## Fernando

Hay libros completos sobre la etimología de España. La única parte segura es España < Hispania (latín). Cualquier derivación anterior está sujeta a controversia.


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## Lancel0t

About our country, it was named after King Philip II of Spain and it was called Filipinas before. Miguel Lopez de Legazpi was the conquistador who named our country.


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## Artrella

Según Angel Rosenblat (Argentina, Historia de un nombre, Buenos Aires, 1949), "el nombre de la Argentina nace de una latinización: argentino (del latín argentum, plata). Empezó por ser un adjetivo poético que equivale a platense o rioplatense: Río argentino, Provincia argentina.


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## beri

Francia viene de los francos que eran belgas, creo
no sé mucho de historia, por lo que me paro aqui


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## Fernando

Perdona la corrección, Beri. Los francos eran germanos. El idioma francés es de origen latino porque los francos no pudieron imponer su idioma a la población hispanogala (celtas en su mayoría).


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## LV4-26

That's right, Fernando. We French/Francs have been occupying this land unrightfully for more than 15 centuries  (or maybe my ancestors were Celts ?)
I think of that when I hear French people object to immigration.

As for Normandy which is the area of France where I'm living now, it's the land of the Normans, i.e. the North men (thus called because they came from Scandinavia).


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## astronauta

Kanata is an aboriginal word that means village or settlement. It was deformed into Canada.

Kanata is now a village near Ottawa, the capital.


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## Fernando

Alternative explanation:

"Over the years keen-eyed aspirants have offered many preposterous etymologies that attempt in a folksy way to explain the origin of the word Canada, like the rumour Spaniards visited our bleak shores earlier than Cartier, found no gold, and wrote on their maps aquì nada ‘there is nothing here.’ In one 16th century Spanish dialect, it could have been aca nada. The early explorer Hennepin said Spaniards, loathing the country, called it Capa di Nada, Cape Nothing. "


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## Asmodeo

Fernando said:
			
		

> Hay libros completos sobre la etimología de España. La única parte segura es España < Hispania (latín). Cualquier derivación anterior está sujeta a controversia.


Así es. Pero es interesante de todas formas.

Fenicios y cartagineses llamaron a la Península _*Span*_ o _*Spania*_ con el significado de _oculto_ (país escondido y remoto), que según otra versión vendría del término fenicio _*I-shphanim*, que significa "tierra de damanes", _unos animales parecidos a los conejos. De los cartagineses tomarían los romanos el topónimo *Hispania*.

Los griegos llamaron a la Península *Iberia *por tres analogías con la Iberia caucásica (en la costa del Mar Negro):

-Ambos lugares estaban en extremos (oriental y occidental) de su mundo conocido.
-Ambos compartían el mito de Hércules.
-En ambos había un tesoro mitológico. El de Tartessos (occidental) y el de la Cólquida (oriental).

Otra teoría dice que los griegos tomaron el nombre de la palabra *Iber*, que los indígenas del lugar pronunciaban con frecuencia y significaba _río_.

--------------------------

El nombre oficial del país es *Reino de España*.


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## beri

fascinating, astronauta


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## chica11

I wish that the United States had a different name, it seems to describe us as united states which is what we are but, it isn't a name. I'm probably not explaining my point well.   I don't like to use the word America since America to me includes, south, central and north and not my country and comes from Amerigo vespucci right?


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## elroy

chica11 said:
			
		

> I wish that the United States had a different name, it seems to describe us as united states which is what we are but, it isn't a name. I'm probably not explaining my point well. I don't like to use the word America since America to me includes, south, central and north and not my country and comes from Amerigo vespucci right?


 
Yes, you're right on target about the name "America." It was named after Amerigo Vespucci because he realized that America (the whole hemisphere) was a new world, and not India. By the way, the mapmaker who gave America its name was from Freiburg*!

I think the "United States" _is_ a name, though. Yes, it describes what you are, but that only sounds weird to you because you speak English. To someone who doesn't it would be intriguing to find out what the words actually mean, and how they are an apt description of the country they refer to. Do you see my point?

*For those who are in the dark as to why that's cool, it's because I lived in Freiburg for three months. In fact, it was my location (no news to the perspicacious among you) until a few days ago.


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## elroy

"Israel" = Prince of God 

("Isra" = prince
"El" - God)


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## jorge_val_ribera

chica11 said:
			
		

> I don't like to use the word America since America to me includes, south, central and north and not my country and comes from Amerigo vespucci right?


 
Hallelujah, amen! That drives me NUTS! I mean, I can't stand hearing stuff like: "She's rich and famous and has a big house in Beverly Hills! She's living the _American_ dream!".


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## amikama

elroy said:
			
		

> "Israel" = Prince of God
> 
> ("Isra" = prince
> "El" - God)


No, it doesn't mean "prince of God" but "he will fight with God". 

Israel was the name given to patriarch Jacob after he wrestled with a man without knowing he (the man) was angel of God. 

Later God gave the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River to Jacob and all of his descendants - hence "Eretz-Israel" (Israel's Land), and after 1948 - "State of Israel".


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## amikama

Asmodeo said:
			
		

> Fenicios y cartagineses llamaron a la Península _*Span*_ o _*Spania*_ con el significado de _oculto_ (país escondido y remoto), que según otra versión vendría del término fenicio _*I-shphanim*, que significa "tierra de damanes" _


...o de _*I-sappanim*_, "isla de marineros". Los fenicios fueron marineros.

Si no me equivoco, los nombres hebreos de España y Francia, ספרד (_Sfarad_) y צרפת (_Tsarfat_), son de origen fenicio. Sfarad y Tsarfat fueron pueblos en Fenicia (donde está Líbano hoy en día).

Además, en hebreo antiguo אספמיה (_Espamia_) significaba no sólo "España" sino también "cualquier lugar muy lejano".


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## Asmodeo

Hay decenas de interpretaciones posibles sobre el origen.

Por ejemplo, se dice que podría venir de *Sphan*, que en caldeo y hebreo significa "_tierra del norte_", ya que los fenicios pudieron llegaron a la península desde el sur, tras bordear la costa africana.


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## Reili

amikama said:
			
		

> No, it doesn't mean "prince of God" but "he will fight with God".
> 
> Israel was the name given to patriarch Jacob after he wrestled with a man without knowing he (the man) was angel of God.
> 
> Later God gave the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River to Jacob and all of his descendants - hence "Eretz-Israel" (Israel's Land), and after 1948 - "State of Israel".


 
*Genesis 32:27-29 (New International Version)*

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

27 The man asked him, "What is your name?" 
"Jacob," he answered. 


28 Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, [a] because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." 29 Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." 
But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there.



*Notas al pie:*

Genesis 32:28 _Israel _means _he struggles with God _.


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## asm

I have thought about this too many times; I thinik that the USA chose for itself a "generic" name. Almost all other countries have a "given" name, and just a few have a name that refers to generic terms. Although I am not familiar to the difference between all "kingdoms", the United Kingdom should be another generic name. I am not sure if Austria, in its original German name, means somethign like the kingdom of the East, or something similar. 

I understand that there should be more names like these, but The United States of America is a proper name but is also a compound by "generics"; this name issue has not been an easy one for those other Americans who are not part of this country. The unfrotunate mistake of not choosing a particular name for themselves has evolved to the myth that America is this country (many US citizens do not even recognize there is a controversy). 

To many nationals here, the problem is solved by saying America (our country) vs. the Americas (all the rest). But when you ask them what did Chrisopher Columbus discover, most of the time they will say: America; when this person did not came to continental land.

(Just a thought, in my opinion C Columbus did not discovered America, he discovered (only for his social background) that the worls was not flat as many people at that time thought. I think that America was not discovered. On the contrary, it was populated by immigration of tribes who came thousands of years before CC. I do not think that "discover" works with this immigration patterns.
If you think America "was discovered" I will ask you: when (and by whom) Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia were discovered? If America was discovered, every other land in the word shoud have been" discovered" in the same terms as America was. 







			
				elroy said:
			
		

> Yes, you're right on target about the name "America." It was named after Amerigo Vespucci because he realized that America (the whole hemisphere) was a new world, and not India. By the way, the mapmaker who gave America its name was from Freiburg*!
> 
> I think the "United States" _is_ a name, though. Yes, it describes what you are, but that only sounds weird to you because you speak English. To someone who doesn't it would be intriguing to find out what the words actually mean, and how they are an apt description of the country they refer to. Do you see my point?
> 
> *For those who are in the dark as to why that's cool, it's because I lived in Freiburg for three months. In fact, it was my location (no news to the perspicacious among you) until a few days ago.


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## Vanda

Brasil= the name of a red tree very numerous then ( when Portuguese people

invaded the country to-be). Well, nowadays, as so many natural resources

here, the tree is in its way to extinction.


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## MarkLondres

Vanda said:
			
		

> Brasil= the name of a red tree very numerous then ( when Portuguese people
> 
> invaded the country to-be). Well, nowadays, as so many natural resources
> 
> here, the tree is in its way to extinction.


 
This little nugget of Brazillian history found here absolutely fascinates me...

"In 1807, Napoleon's army marched on Lisbon. Two days before the invasion, the Portuguese Prince Regent, later to become Dom João VI, set sail for Brazil. Soon after arriving, he made Rio de Janeiro the capital of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarve"

That's like Washington being the capital of the "United States of America and the State of the United Kindgom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Commonwealth"

or USASUKGBNI&C if you please. Actually now i write this, the whole notion seems disconcertingly less alien to me.

M


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## Narda

Any of you knows the meaning of Guatemala?  I have no idea, never found it.  If you do, please share it with me.


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## desde aquel verano

Hi, Narda. I found this:

"The origin of the name Guatemala is Indian, but its derivation and meaning are undetermined. Some hold that the name Guatemala means land of the trees in the Maya-Toltec language. Another thought is that the Nahuatl expression Quauhtitlan, which means "between the trees," gave the name to what we now know as Guatemala"...

You can see the rest of the article here: http://www.questconnect.org/ca_guatemala.htm


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## Whisky con ron

The name of Venezuela means "small Venice", Venez+uela.  This came because of the houses the indians used to build above lakes, etc (palafitos).


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## asm

I found this instead


«_Quiché_, ‘tierra de muchos árboles’, ‘tierra poblada de bosques’, era el nombre de la nación más poderosa del interior de Guatemala en el siglo XVI. El mismo significado tiene la palabra náhuatl _Quauhtlemallan_, que es probablemente una traducción del nombre _Quiché_ y que, lo mismo que éste, describe con acierto el país montuoso y fértil que se extiende al sur de México. Es indudable que el nombre azteca _Quauhtlemallan_, del cual se derivó el moderno de Guatemala, se aplicaba a todo el país y no solamente a la capital de los cakchiqueles.» 


http://culturitalia.uibk.ac.at/hispanoteca/landeskunde-la/Pa%C3%ADses/Guatemala.htm


			
				desde aquel verano said:
			
		

> Hi, Narda. I found this:
> 
> "The origin of the name Guatemala is Indian, but its derivation and meaning are undetermined. Some hold that the name Guatemala means land of the trees in the Maya-Toltec language. Another thought is that the Nahuatl expression Quauhtitlan, which means "between the trees," gave the name to what we now know as Guatemala"...
> 
> You can see the rest of the article here: http://www.questconnect.org/ca_guatemala.htm


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## Narda

Thanks a million Desde Aquel Verano, I promise to devore the whole site.  It makes sense though if we think of how the country is (was...).


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## elroy

jorge_val_ribera said:
			
		

> Hallelujah, amen! That drives me NUTS! I mean, I can't stand hearing stuff like: "She's rich and famous and has a big house in Beverly Hills! She's living the _American_ dream!".


 
Well, I agree that that is yet another example of usurping the name _America_ to refer to the United States.

Nevertheless, that's not what the "American dream" refers to.  It's a little more complicated than that.


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## elroy

amikama said:
			
		

> No, it doesn't mean "prince of God" but "he will fight with God".


 
Well, this is news to me! 

What verb does "isra" come from?


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## Narda

Thank you ASM, I will also read the page you sent, I am so excited!


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## amikama

elroy said:
			
		

> Well, this is news to me!
> 
> What verb does "isra" come from?


 
It drives from שָׂרָה, a Biblical verb which means "he fought/struggled". This verb appears in the same verse in which Jacob is named Israel:
לֹא יַעֲקֹב יֵאָמֵר עוֹד שִׁמְךָ--כִּי, אִם-יִשְׂרָאֵל: כִּי-*שָׂרִיתָ* עִם-אֱלֹהִים וְעִם-אֲנָשִׁים, וַתּוּכָל.
(Genesis 32:29)

(I'm still trying to figure out how "isra" led to "prince"  To my best knowledge, "isra" has no meanings other than the one above.)


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## Reili

What about Alaska? is it a country or another state of USA?


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## meili

Reili said:
			
		

> What about Alaska? is it a country or another state of USA?


It is one of the states of USA. (AFAIK)


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## chica11

Yes Alaska is part of the U.S however any Native Alaskan or Native American (For that matter in any U.S state) reservation is not part of the U.S federal or state government as is treated as a foreign land.  The federal government has no jurisdiction.


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## Mariana_9

Pues Uruguay significa "río de los pájaros pintados" en charrúa, de los indios Charrúas que habitaron estas tierras. 
 El país en realidad se llama República Oriental del Uruguay, ya que se encuentra al este del "río de los pájaros pintados", o sea Río Uruguay. =P

 Por otra parte el nombre de Montevideo, la capital del país, significaría  "el sexto monte de Este a  Oeste" ya que ésto es lo que vieron los navegantes al divisar la ciudad. Monte VI d e-o.

Saludos

Mariana


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## Outsider

The word "Portugal" can be traced back to _Portucale_, which initially designated a land in what is today Northern Portugal, around the city of Porto, long before Portugal became a political entity. After the foundation of the kingdom of Portugal in the 12th century, the word came to be applied to the Southern lands, too, as they were incorporated into the kingdom.

_Portucale_ is made up of two roots, _Portu(s)_, which clearly refers to the city of Porto, and _Cale_, whose origin is somewhat obscure. Here's an essay that discusses this.


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## Outsider

asm said:
			
		

> (Just a thought, in my opinion C Columbus did not discovered America, he discovered (only for his social background) that the worls was not flat as many people at that time thought.


The idea that people thought the world was flat at the time of Columbus is itself a myth. See the following page: The Myth of the Flat Earth.


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## everything

chica11 said:
			
		

> Yes Alaska is part of the U.S however any Native Alaskan or Native American (For that matter in any U.S state) reservation is not part of the U.S federal or state government as is treated as a foreign land. The federal government has no jurisdiction.


 
 AFAIK that's not actually true. they are like mini states in their own right - the tribal council or whatever acts like the local governement, and they may have their own fire services/court system/etc but ultimately everyone living there is subject to US federal law.


 i cant post URLs but check out the Tribal_Sovereignty page at wikipedia


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## odelotj

El Salvador is pretty obvious, Spanish for the Savior. Officially, Republica de El Salvador.  Check out this page too for a lot of countries information.


http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/


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## Reili

odelotj said:
			
		

> El Salvador is pretty obvious, Spanish for the Savior. Officially, Republica de El Salvador. Check out this page too for a lot of countries information.
> 
> 
> http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/


 

Yeah it's obvious but in honor to who? Jesus Christ? some national heroe?


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## odelotj

That would be Jesus, b/c some outrageous percentage of the population is Catholic.  But maybe I'm wrong, I should study up on my native country a bit more, I'll get back with a definitive on that.


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