What's the meaning of the follwoing words ( names of countries) :?

1. Netherland


2.Italy


3.Australia


4.France


5.America


6.Canada


7.Switzerland


8.China





Thank you

What's the meaning of the follwoing words ( names of countries) :?
Netherlands means "low countries."


Italy was named after a Greek family that was prominent on the penninsula several thousand years ago--prior to the Roman Empire.
Reply:1. Low Lands


2. Bull/Calf


3. Originally from Latin terra australis incognita - "unknown southern land"


4. Land of the Franks -%26gt; Franks later became a word for "free"


5. America is just a feminine name for the continent, we used "the United States" because of what the preamble says.


6. From the word Kanata meaning "village" or "settlement"


7. The Suittes


8. Chinese: Zhong Guo - "central country" The English name of China comes from the Qin Dynasty, possibly in a Sanskrit form; the pronunciation "China" came to the western languages through the Persian word 賳 "Chin".
Reply:The Netherlands are named for their situation between (nether) the other northern European countries.





Italy is named for what used to just be the southern part of the country. Nobody knows exactly where "italia" came from, but they think it might be from the Greek "viteliu", meaning "land of young cattle".





Australia was named for it's location; Australis means "southern" in latin.





France was named for the Franks, the tribe which made up the dominant portion of the population at the time of naming.





America was named for Amerigo Vespucci, a cartographer associated with the early discovery of the continent.





Canada comes from an Iroquois word meaning "village" or "settlement".





Switzerland is named for one of the early groups of people from the area, the Schwyz.





And China was named from Western misunderstanding... it's named for the Qin Dynasty, which sounds an awful lot like "chin" when spoken. China (in Chinese) is called Zhongguo.
Reply:I usually do not recommend Wikipedia, but in this case, it's an excellent resource. Just look up each country - they always have an explanation of how to pronounce the name and its origins.