Etymology
From Middle English Affrike, from Old French Affrique, Affrike, from Latin Āfrica, from Āfrī, singular Āfer (inhabitant of the country of Carthage), in turn either from:
- The Punic or Phoenician word 𐤏𐤐𐤓 (ʿpr /ʿafar/, “dust”), which has cognates in other Semitic languages.
- The Berber word ifri (“cave”), plural ifran, in reference to cave dwellers of Tunisia (see Tataouine).
Folk etymologies include:
Proper noun
Africa (countable and uncountable, plural Africas)
- The continent that is south of Europe, east of the Atlantic Ocean, west of the Indian Ocean and north of Antarctica.
- the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa
- Synonym: (sometimes offensive, dated, informal) Dark Continent
- (nonstandard, proscribed) Sub-Saharan Africa, contrasted with the Maghreb.
2021 June 10, Abdelmajid Hannoum, The Invention of the Maghreb: Between Africa and the Middle East, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 205:The Sahara stood as an important marker between the Maghreb and Africa, not only in modern times but in times immemorial.
- (historical) A province of the Roman Empire containing what is now modern Tunisia and portions of Libya.
- A surname.
Meronyms
Countries of Africa
Central Africa
Eastern Africa
Northern Africa
Southern Africa
Western Africa
Translations
continent
- Acehnese: Afrika
- Adyghe: Африкэ (Afrikɛ)
- Afrikaans: Afrika (af)
- Akan: Afrika
- Albanian: Afrikë f (indefinite), Afrika (sq) f (definite)
- Amharic: አፍሪቃ (ʾäfriḳa)
- Arabic: أَفْرِيقِيَا (ar) f (ʔafrīqiyā), إِفْرِيقِيَا (ar) f (ʔifrīqiyā)
- Hijazi Arabic: أفريقيا f (ʔafrīqya)
- Armenian: Աֆրիկա (hy) (Afrika)
- Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܐܲܦܪܝܼܩܵܐ f (Āfrīqa)
- Asturian: África (ast)
- Azerbaijani: Afrika (az)
- Bambara: Afrika
- Bashkir: Африка
- Basque: Afrika (eu)
- Bavarian: Afrika
- Belarusian: А́фрыка f (Áfryka)
- Bengali: আফ্রিকা (bn) (aphrika)
- Brahui: Afríká
- Breton: Afrika (br) f
- Bulgarian: А́фрика (bg) f (Áfrika)
- Burmese: အာဖရိက (ahpa.ri.ka.)
- Carpathian Rusyn: А́фрика f (Áfryka)
- Catalan: Àfrica (ca) f
- Central Atlas Tamazight: ⵜⴰⴼⴻⵔⴽⴰ (taferka), ⵜⴰⴼⵔⵉⵇⵜ (tafriqt)
- Chechen: Африка (Afrika), Африк (Afrik)
- Cherokee: ᎬᎿᎨᏍᏛ (gvhnagesdv)
- Chichewa: Afirika
- Chinese:
- Cantonese: 非洲 (fei1 zau1)
- Eastern Min: 非洲 (Hĭ-ciŭ)
- Hakka: 非洲 (Fî-chû)
- Hokkien: 非洲 (Hui-chiu)
- Mandarin: 非洲 (zh) (Fēizhōu), (rare) 阿非利加 (zh) (Āfēilìjiā)
- Wu: 非洲 (1fi-tseu)
- Cornish: Afrika
- Corsican: Africa (co) f
- Crimean Tatar: Afrika
- Czech: Afrika (cs) f
- Danish: Afrika (da) n
- Dhivehi: އެފްރިކާ (dv) (efrikā)
- Dinka: Apirïka
- Dutch: Afrika (nl) n
- Dzongkha: ཨཕ་རི་ཀ (aph ri ka)
- Esperanto: Afriko (eo)
- Estonian: Aafrika (et)
- Faroese: Afrika f or n
- Finnish: Afrikka (fi)
- French: l’Afrique f
- Friulian: Afriche f
- Galician: África (gl) f
- Georgian: აფრიკა (ka) (apriḳa)
- German: Afrika (de) n
- Greek: Αφρική (el) f (Afrikí)
- Ancient: Ἀφρική f (Aphrikḗ), Λιβύη (Libúē)
- Greenlandic: Afrika
- Gujarati: આફ્રિકા (āphrikā)
- Hausa: Afirka (ha)
- Hawaiian: ʻApelika
- Hebrew: אַפְרִיקָה (he) f (áfrika)
- Hindi: अफ़्रीका (hi) m (afrīkā), कालद्वीप m (kāladvīp, literally “black continent”)
- Hungarian: Afrika (hu)
- Icelandic: Afríka (is) f
- Ido: Afrika (io)
- Igbo: Eluàlà
- Ingrian: Afrikka
- Irish: an Afraic f
- Middle Irish: Afraicc f
- Old Irish: Afraicc f
- Italian: Africa (it) f
- Japanese: アフリカ (ja) (Afurika), (dated) 阿弗利加 (ja) (Afurika)
- Javanese: Afrika
- Kabyle: Tafrikt
- Kalmyk: Априк (Aprik)
- Kannada: ಆಫ್ರಿಕಾ (āphrikā)
- Karakalpak: Afrika
- Kashmiri: اَفریٖقہ (afrīqh)
- Kashubian: Afrika (csb) f
- Kazakh: Африка (kk) (Afrika)
- Khmer: អាហ្វ្រិក (ʼaafrɨk)
- Kongo: Afelika, Afrika, Katiopa
- Korean: 아프리카 (ko) (Apeurika)
- Kurdish:
- Northern Kurdish: Efrîqa (ku)
- Kyrgyz: Африка (ky) (Afrika)
- Ladin: please add this translation if you can
- Ladino: Afrika
- Lao: ອາຟຣິກກາ (lo) (ʼāp rik kā), ອາຟຣິກາ (ʼāp ri kā), ອາຝະລິກາ (ʼā fa li kā), ອາຟຣິກ (ʼāp rik), ອາຟະລິກ (ʼā fa lik)
- Latin: Āfrica (la) f, Libya f
- Latvian: Āfrika (lv) f
- Lingala: Afríka
- Lithuanian: Afrika (lt) f
- Lü: ᦵᦝᧀᧈᦵᦋᦲᧁᧈ (foey¹tsoew¹)
- Macedonian: Африка f (Afrika)
- Malagasy: Afrika (mg)
- Malay: Afrika (ms)
- Malayalam: ആഫ്രിക്ക (ml) (āphrikka)
- Maltese: Afrika
- Manx: Yn Affrick f
- Maori: Āwherika
- Marathi: आफ्रिका (āphrikā)
- Mongolian:
- Cyrillic: Африк (mn) (Afrik)
- Mongolian: ᠠᠹᠷᠢᠺᠠ (afrika)
- Moore: Afriki
- Navajo: Naakaii Łizhiní Bikéyah
- Nepali: अफ्रिका (ne) (aphrikā)
- Northern Sami: Afrihkká
- Northern Sotho: Afrika
- Northwestern Ojibwa: Makadewiiyaas-gichi-aki
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: Afrika (no) n
- Nynorsk: Afrika (nn) n
- Occitan: Africa (oc) f
- Odia: ଆଫ୍ରିକା (āphrikā)
- Old Church Slavonic:
- Cyrillic: Афрїка f (Afrika)
- Glagolitic: Ⰰⱇⱃⰻⰽⰰ f (Afrika)
- Old English: Affrica (ang) f
- Old French: Affrique f, Affrike f
- Ossetian: Африкӕ (Afrikæ)
- Pangasinan: Afrika
- Papiamentu: Afrika
- Pashto: افريقا (ps) (afrīqā)
- Persian:
- Classical Persian: آفْرِیقَا (fa) (āfrīqā)
- Dari: آفْرِیقَا (fa) (āfrīqā)
- Iranian Persian: آفْریقا (fa) (âfriğâ)
- Piedmontese: please add this translation if you can
- Pitcairn-Norfolk: Afreka
- Plautdietsch: Afrika (nds) f
- Polish: Afryka (pl) f
- Portuguese: África (pt) f
- Punjabi: ਅਫ਼ਰੀਕਾ (pa) (afarīkā)
- Romanian: Africa (ro) f
- Russian: А́фрика (ru) f (Áfrika)
- Rwanda-Rundi: Afurika
- Sanskrit: अफ्रीका (aphrīkā)
- Sardinian: Afrika
- Scottish Gaelic: Afraga m
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: А̀фрика f
- Roman: Àfrika (sh) f
- Silesian: Afrika
- Sindhi: آفريڪا
- Sinhalese: අප්රිකාව (si) (aprikāwa)
- Slovak: Afrika (sk) f
- Slovene: Áfrika (sl) f
- Somali: Afrika
- Sorbian:
- Lower Sorbian: Afrika f
- Upper Sorbian: Afrika (hsb) f
- Sotho: Afrika (st)
- Southern Ndebele: Afrika
- Spanish: África (es) f
- Sranan Tongo: Afrika
- Sundanese: Afrika (su)
- Swahili: Afrika (sw)
- Swazi: Afrika
- Swedish: Afrika (sv) n
- Tagalog: Aprika (tl)
- Tajik: Африқо (tg) (Afriqo)
- Tamil: ஆப்பிரிக்கா (ta) (āppirikkā)
- Tatar: Африка (Afrika)
- Telugu: ఆఫ్రికా (te) (āphrikā)
- Thai: แอฟริกา (th) (ɛ́p-frí-gaa)
- Tibetan: ཨ་ཧྥེ་རི་ཁ (a hphe ri kha)
- Tigrinya: ኣፍሪቃ (ʾafriḳa)
- Tsonga: Afrika
- Tswana: Aforika
- Turkish: Afrika (tr)
- Turkmen: Afrika
- Ukrainian: А́фрика (uk) f (Áfryka)
- Urdu: اَفْرِیقَہ m (afrīqa), اَفْرِیقا m (afrīqā)
- Uyghur: ئافرىقا (ug) (afriqa)
- Uzbek: Afrika (uz)
- Vai: ꕉꔱꔸꕪ (Áfíríka)
- Venda: Afurika
- Venetian: please add this translation if you can
- Veps: Afrik
- Vietnamese: Châu Phi (vi) (洲非), Phi Châu (非洲), Phi (vi)
- Volapük: Frikop (vo), (obsolete) Fikop
- Võro: Afriga
- Votic: please add this translation if you can
- Walloon: Afrike (wa) f
- Waray-Waray: Aprika
- Welsh: Affrica (cy) f, Yr Affrig f
- West Flemish: (please verify) Afrika
- West Frisian: Afrika (fy) n
- Wolof: Afrig (wo)
- Xhosa: i-Afrika
- Yiddish: אַפֿריקע (afrike)
- Yoruba: Ilẹ̀ Adúláwọ̀, Áfíríkà
- Zazaki: (Southern Zazaki) Afrika (diq)
- Zhuang: Feihcouh
- Zulu: i-Afrika
|
historical: province of the Roman Empire
Proper noun
Africa f
- Africa (a continent)
Etymology
Feminine of āfricus/Āfricus, as a noun elliptic of terra āfrica/Āfrica (literally “the land of the Afri”). The adjective Āfricus comes from the name of the Āfrī (singular Āfer), a tribal people of the area near Carthage, by addition of the suffix -icus. The Latin term formed alongside Greek ἡ Ἀφρική (hē Aphrikḗ), both terms being attested since the first century.
Proper noun
Āfrica f sg (genitive Āfricae); first declension
- Northwestern Africa, the territory of Carthage, the African coast west of the Nile
- Nilus Africam ab Aethiopiā dispescens (Pliny 5, 9, 10, § 53)
- Africa (a province of the Roman Empire) (later split into Africa Zeugitana and Africa Byzacena under Diocletian)
- Africa as a continent, understood as the quarter of the globe south of the Mediterranean
Si probare possemus Ligarium in Āfricā omnino non fuisse.- If we could prove that Ligarius was not at all in Africa.
Declension
First-declension noun, singular only.
More information Case, Singular ...
Close
References
- "Africa", in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- "Africa", in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- Africa in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈa.fri.ka/
- Hyphenation: A‧fri‧ca
Proper noun
Africa f
- Africa (a continent)
Declension
More information singular, indefinite articulation ...
|
singular |
f gender |
indefinite articulation |
definite articulation |
nominative/accusative |
(o) Africă |
Africa |
genitive/dative |
(unei) Africi |
Africii |
vocative |
Africă, Africo |
Close
declension of Africa (singular only)