1555: europe Mar 17, 2019

Asia and Africa were named for smaller regions in each continent, but Europe was named for a Phoenician Princess in Greek Mythology, Europa. Some have thought that the word is actually a composite of the Greek elements meaning 'wide' (εὐρύς) and 'eye' (ὤψ). This was not a reference to the eyes of the inhabitants, however, but was more of an expression denoting the idea of expansive, sort of like the phrase "as far as the eye can see". There have also been connections drawn to a Semitic root meaning 'West', or evening (i.e. the place where the Sun sets), such as the Hebrew 'Ma'arav' (West) and 'maariv' (evening). This is also where 'Magreb', a large region of Northwest Africa comes from. This all is more hypothetical, but it is bolstered by the fact that 'Asia' and its namesake 'Anatolia' comes from a word meaning [land of the] East, not only in Greek but also Semitic languages like Hebrew and Assyrian.
Support Word Facts at Patreon.com/wordfacts