List of continent name etymologies

This is a list of the etymologies of continent names as they are currently found on Earth.

The ancient Romans used the name Africa terra – "land of the Afri" (plural, or "Afer" singular) – for the northern part of the continent that corresponds to modern-day Tunisia. The origin of Afer may be the Phoenician afar, dust; the Afri tribe, who dwelt in Northern Africa around the area of Carthage; Greek aphrike (*ἀφρίκη), without cold; or Latin aprica, sunny.

The name Africa, which was originally used by the Romans to refer to present-day Tunisia, only began to be stretched to encompass a larger area when the provinces of Tripolitania, Numidia and Mauretania Caesariensis were subdued to the Diocesis of Africa, following the administrative restructuring of Diocletian. Later, when Justinian I reconquered lands of the former West Roman Empire, all the regions from the Chelif River to the Gulf of Sidra were annexed to the Byzantine Empire as the "Exarchate of Africa".

During the Middle Ages, as the Europeans increased their knowledge and awareness of the size of the African continent, they progressively extended the name of Africa to the rest of the continent.

The continent of America is named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci (who styled himself Americus Vespucius in Latin). Vespucci, following his four voyages exploring the coastlines of Venezuela and Brazil, first developed the idea that the newly discovered western land was in fact a continent. In recognition thereof, America's first cartographer (the German Martin Waldseemüller) named the new continent after Vespucci.

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