2704: Ethiopia and Abyssinia May 16

There are a number of countries and regions that have historical names, like Persia for Iran, Mesopotamia for Iraq, or Dalmatia for Croatia. While some of these have been used relatively recently, usually it is a matter of one replacing the other, but in the case of ‘Abyssinia’ and ‘Ethiopia’, the difference is that the now old-fashioned word came to English later, partly because there was no native word exactly. In fact, both words come from Latin, replacing the Old English Siġelhearwena land or Sigelwaraland, meaning “land of the Sun Worshippers” or “Land of the Sunburnt”. The difference is that ‘Abyssinia’ comes to [admittedly New] Latin from Arabic, as opposed to ‘Ethiopia’ from Ancient Greek. Though now this is also the modern word for Ethiopia in native Amharic ኢትዮጵያ (ʾĪtyōṗṗyā), that itself is adopted from Greek where it meant ‘burnt face’ and denoted all of Sub-Saharan Africa, as opposed to ‘Libya’ which denoted North Africa.