1743: Europa and Frangistan Sep 22, 2019

Most major world languages, as well as those which did not have contact with Europe until fairly recently have a word for 'Europe' derive the name from 'Europa'. Even in Chinese 'Ōuzhōu' (歐洲/欧洲) comes from an abbreviation of 'Ōuluóbā', the L and the B coming from the R and the P respectively. One exception came from Turkic languages that used to have a name along the lines of 'Frangistan', still occasionally in use informally today, meaning 'land of the Franks' particularly after the crusades. Indeed, in Hindi the word for Europeans is 'Firang' of the same root.

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