Etymology in the sources
Source-reportedLearned borrowing from New Latin America, feminine Latinized form of the Italian first name of Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512). Amerigo is an Italian name derived from a Germanic language and is etymologically related to Henry and Emmerich. The earliest known use of America for the (South) American continent is on a 1507 map by Martin Waldseemüller; see Naming of the Americas for more. Although this is the most widely accepted derivation, it has also been suggested that it could originate from the name of the Amerrisque mountains in Nicaragua (from Mayan), and another disputed theory is that it derives from the surname of Richard Amerike (1440–1503), whose surname is an anglicised form of Welsh ap Meurig (“son of Meurig”), from Old Welsh Mouric, which could be a rendition of Latin Mauritius (compare Maurice).
Sources for this account (4)
- Wiktionary: AmericaCC-BY-SA-4.0 · retrieved 2026-10-15
- Greek Wiktionary: AmericaCC-BY-SA-4.0 · retrieved 2026-10-15
- French Wiktionary: AmericaCC-BY-SA-4.0 · retrieved 2026-10-14
- Polish Wiktionary: AmericaCC-BY-SA-4.0 · retrieved 2026-10-14
