Africa

Forms

Āfrica f sg (genitive Āfricae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin āfricus (“African”), the feminine of the adjective used as a noun with terra (“land”) understood.^[1][2] The adjective is formed from Āfer (“an African”), plural Āfrī, the name of a people near Carthage, with the suffix -icus.^[1][2] Etymonline calls the origin of that name uncertain;^[2] Lewis & Short say that the Romans took the name from the Carthaginians for their own country, and that Ancient Greek Ἀφρική (Aphrikḗ) has only this sense.^[3] Lewis & Short cite the adjective, beside the word for land, already in Ennius.^[3]

Solinus and Martianus Capella derived it from a son of Hercules called Afer.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author in the OLD is Cicero, for the Roman province: a praetor then held Africa.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

At first it was the territory of Carthage, and after Carthage was destroyed it became the name of the Roman province, roughly modern Tunisia.^[8][5] Sallust uses it for the whole continent as the ancients knew it, and also by metonymy for its people.^[8][3] Pomponius Mela and Pliny the Elder distinguish Africa in the narrow sense from the wider continent,^[3][4] and late writers count it as the third part of the world beside Europe and Asia.^[4]

The Latin word, at first used only of the region around Tunisia, was gradually extended to the whole continent.^[2] A medieval English chronicle uses it for the south-west wind, in place of Āfricus.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the Roman province.^[5][7]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it of the continent and of its people.^[8][3][7]
• 43/44 AD – Pomponius Mela marks off Africa in the narrow sense.^[3][4][7]
• 5th century AD – Martianus Capella derives the name from Afer, son of Hercules.^[4][7]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. Africa, the continent, or the part of it known to the ancients.^[5][10]
2. The Roman province of Africa, the former territory of Carthage.^[5][8]
3. (by metonymy) The people of Africa.^[5][6]

Related words

• Āfer
• Āfrī
• āfricānus
• āfricus
• English Africa

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c d Simpson, D. P. (1959), Cassell's New Latin Dictionary, London: Cassell
9. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
10. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.