Re: OT: Renaming the continents

Quoting Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>:

> En réponse à "Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...>:
>
> >
> > It was an extremely learned and never very well-defined name for
> > vaguely western lands.  The name likely derives from the Semitic
> > _ereb_ "land of the setting sun".
> >
>
> ?!!! I thought it came from the Greek name Europa, from Greek mythology?
> Deriving "Europe" from |ereb| looks suspiciously like folk etymology to
> me...
No, in fact, if you'll read my other posts, Latin/Greek <Europa>
is the direct origin of the word in English, but *that* Greek word
ultimately comes from some semitic language, and was never very
well-defined afterwards. (Such definition is at least now opaque,
like Homeric _Danaan_.)

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier            "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637