Paleozoic supercontinent comprising North America and Eurasia, 1931, from German (1928), from Laurentia, geologists' name for the ancient core of North America (see Laurentian) + second element of Eurasia.
region in northeastern Germany, late 14c., Prusse (late 13c. as a surname), from Medieval Latin Borussi, Prusi, Latinized forms of the native name of the Lithuanian people who lived in the bend of the Baltic before being conquered 12c. and exterminated by (mostly) German crusaders who replaced them as the inhabitants.
Perhaps from Slavic *Po-Rus "(Land) Near the Rusi" (i.e. Russians; compare Pomerania). The German duchy of Prussia after the 17c. union with the Mark of Brandenberg became the core of the Prussian monarchy and later the chief state in the German Empire. The center of power shifted to Berlin after the union, and the old core of the state came to be known as East Prussia.
Southeast Asian nation, the name is said to be from Kambu, legendary ancestor of the people. Related: Cambodian.
African nation (1971-1997), from an early alternative name of the Congo River, from Kikongo nzai, dialectal form of nzadi "river."
1815 as a name for a distinct region that had been partly settled by Europeans; 1910 as the name of a nation.
"cultural and geographical region of inland Eastern U.S.," 1880s, from the Appalachian Mountains, which are its core. Earlier Appalachia was proposed as a better name for "United States of America" by Washington Irving in 1839 (though he preferred Alleghenia) and he may get the credit for coinage of the word (see America).
Adriatic coastal nation, from Venetian Italian (Tuscan monte nero), literally "black mountain," a loan-translation of the local Slavonic name, Crnagora. Related: Montenegrine.
coastal nation in Arabia, supposedly named for its founder. Recorded from Roman times (Omana, in Pliny). Related: Omani.
