Europe
The term "Europe" referred once to only a small land area, roughly modern Turkish Thrace. Through the centuries however, it came to denote the whole land mass with which we are familiar today.
The ultimate etymology of the Greek term "Europa" is unknown. One stronger possibility is that it derives from the ancient Sumerian and Semitic root "Ereb", which carries the meaning of "darkness" or "descent", a reference to the region's western location in relation to Mesopotamia, the Levantine Coast, Anatolia, and the Bosporus. Thus the term would have meant the 'land of the setting of the Sun' or, more generically, 'Western land'.
Ancient civilization offers a folk-etymology: In Greek mythology Europa was the beautiful daughter of a Phoenician king named Agenor or Phoenix As Zeus saw her, he transformed himself into a gentle white bull and approached her and her playing friends. She climbed onto the bull's back and it began so swim off to Crete, where she fell in love with the then-changed-back Zeus and had three sons with him (Minos, Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon, the first two of which constitute, together with Aeacus, the three judges of the underworld).
By Cartographic Feature
Country
Main article: list of country name etymologies
State/Territory/Parish
Main article: List of subnational name etymologies
Street
Main article: List of street name etymologies
Hydrography (seas, rivers)
Main articles: List of river name etymologies, List of sea name etymologies
See Also
