1649: Luso- for Portugal Jun 20, 2019

Some combining forms for countries make immediate sense, like 'Austro-' for Austria or 'Franco-' for France, and some are less obvious, like 'Hiberno-' for Ireland. Portugal has another, 'Luso-', which is not immediately obvious; you may know it better from the phrase 'Lusophone (countries)' i.e. Portuguese-speaking. Like with 'Hiberno-', it is different now because it comes from Latin; the Roman province which included modern-day Portugal (as well as some of Spain) was called 'Lusitania'. This was also the namesake of one of the most famous sunken ships.

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