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The naming of the Americas, or America, occurred shortly after Christopher Columbus 's first voyage to the Americas in 1492. It is generally accepted that the name derives from Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer, who explored the new continents in the following years on behalf of Spain and Portugal. However, some have suggested other ...
- ARCTIC. Most bodies of water are named for the areas they surround or the areas that surround them. For example, the Arctic Ocean was named because of its location in the Arctic Circle—which begs the question, how did the Arctic Circle get its name?
- ATLANTIC. The first documented usage of the term “Atlantic” was in the sixth century BC by a Greek poet, Atlantikôi pelágei or the “Sea of Atlas.” In Greek mythology, Atlas is the Titan tasked with holding up the heavens for all eternity.
- INDIAN. The Indian Ocean has been known as such since at least 1515 and is another example of an ocean being named by the area that surrounds it. Earlier accounts named it the Eastern Ocean and Ancient Greece referred to the northwestern Indian ocean as the Erythraean Sea or the Red Sea, likely referring to seasonal blooms of cyanobacteria near the water’s surface turning the normal green-blue water a reddish brown.
- PACIFIC. The Pacific Ocean or Mare Pacificum, meaning “peaceful sea,” was dubbed so by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1520 after his treacherous journey to find the “Spice Islands”, now known as the Malaku Islands in eastern Indonesia.
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Jul 7, 2023 · A year later, German astronomer Johann Bode suggested the winning name, Uranus, the Latin word for the Greek god Ouranos. He made quite a persuasive argument with two main points. First, King ...
Apr 27, 2022 · The winner took home $60. Over the years, there's been a bunch of guesses behind where the name came from. Those guesses range from the herb 'oregano' to the Spanish kingdom 'Aragon,' and to ...
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May 14, 2021 · Without having time to think of something more clever, the cook named the snack after himself, Ignacio — "Nacho" for short. The Sun-Sentinel reports a variation on the story; Anaya's son claims it was Finan who dubbed the dish "Nacho's Especiales," later shortened to just nachos.
Jan 19, 2016 · How Nike almost ended up with a very different name. Philip Levinson. 2016-01-19T19:35:05Z An curved arrow pointing right. Share The letter F. Facebook. An envelope. It indicates the ability to ...
Jan 6, 2018 · Why Japan is called the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’. Around the 7th or 8th century, Japan’s name changed from ‘Wakoku’ (倭国) to ‘Nihon’ (日本). Some records say that the Japanese envoy to China requested to change the name because he disliked it; other records say that the Chinese Empress Wu Zetian ordered Japan to change its name.
