The oldest of the four great divisions of the world received its modern designation =Asia= from the Sanskrit _Ushas_, signifying “land of the dawn.” =Africa= traces its origin to the Phœnician _afer_, a black man, and the Sanskrit _ac_, the earth, a country. =Europe= owes its name to the Greek _eurus_, broad, and _op_, to see, or _ops_, the face, in allusion to “the broad face of the earth.” =America= honours the memory of Amerigo Vespucci, the Florentine navigator, who landed on the New Continent south of the Equator, the year after Columbus discovered the northern mainland in 1498. The name of America first appeared in a work published by Waldsemüller at St. Die, in Lorraine, in the year 1507. It is worthy of note that when Columbus landed in America he imagined he had set foot on part of that vast territory east of the Ganges vaguely known as India; therefore he gave the name of =Indians= to the aborigines. This also accounts for the islands in the Caribbean Sea being styled the =West Indies=.
The cradle of the human race bears the name of =Palestine=, or in Hebrew _Palestina_, meaning “the land of strangers,” agreeably to the native word _palash_, to wander. Palestine is usually denominated the =Holy Land=, because it was the scene of the birth, life, and death of the Redeemer. =Asia Minor= is, of course, Lesser Asia.
For the title of =Persia= we are indebted to the Greeks, who gave the name of _Persis_ to the region (of which the capital was _Persipolis_) originally overrun by a wild branch of the Ayrian race called the Parsa, meaning, in the native tongue, “the Tigers” [_see_ PARSEES]. The suffix _ia_, wherever it occurs in a geographical sense, expresses the Celtic for land or territory. Hence, Persia signifies the territory of the Parsa or Parsees; =Arabia=, the country of the Arabs, “men of the desert”; =Abyssinia=, that of the Abassins, or “mixed races”; =Kaffraria=, that of the Kaffirs, or “unbelievers”; and =Ethiopia=, the “land of the blacks,” according to the two Greek words _aithein_, to burn, and _ops_, the face. =India= denotes the country traversed by the =Indus=, or rather the _Hindu_, which name is a Persicized form of the Sanskrit _Sindhu_, “a great river,” rendered _Hindus_ in the Greek. Synonymous with the Celtic suffix just discussed is the Persian _stan_: consequently =Hindustan= signifies the territory traversed by the river _Hindu_, and peopled by the Hindoos; =Turkestan=, the country of the Turks; =Afghanistan=, that of the Afghans; =Beloochistan=, that of the Belooches; and =Kurdestan=, properly =Koordistan=, that of the Koords. The term =China= is a western corruption of Tsina, so called in honour of Tsin, the founder of the great dynasty which commenced in the third century B.C., when a knowledge of this country was first conveyed to the Western nations. It was this Tsin who built the Great Wall of China (or Tsin) to keep out the Barbarians. The Chinese Empire bears the description of the =Celestial Empire= because its early rulers were all celestial deities. =Siberia= is a term indicative of _Siber_, the residence of Kutsheen Khan, the celebrated Tartar prince, recognized as the ancient capital of the Tartars, the ruins of which may still be seen. Here again the Celtic suffix _ia_ has reference to the surrounding territory.