Name of Australia

The name Australia has been applied to two continents. Originally, it was applied to the south polar continent, or sixth continent, now known as Antarctica. The name is a shortened form of {{lang |la |Terra Australis}} which was one of the names given to the imagined (but undiscovered) land mass that was thought to surround the south pole. The earliest known use of the name {{lang |la |Australia}} in Latin was in 1545, when the word appears in a woodcut illustration of the globe titled Sphere of the Winds contained in an astrological textbook published in Frankfurt.{{cite book |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-230899009/view|last=Barth |first=Cyriaco Jacob zum |title=Astronomia: Teutsch Astronomei |date=1545 |location=Frankfurt}} In the nineteenth century, the name Australia was re-assigned to New Holland, the fifth continent. Thereafter, the south polar continent remained nameless for some eighty years until the new name of Antarctica was coined.{{cite book |last1=Cameron-Ash |first1=M |title=Lying for the Admiralty: Captain Cook's Endeavour Voyage |date=2018 |publisher=Rosenberg Publishing |location=Sydney |isbn=9780648043966 |pages=18–19}}

A {{lang |la |Terra Australis}} ({{translation |land of the south}}) appeared on world maps from the 15th century, although it was not based on any actual surveying of such a landmass but rather on the hypothesis that continents in the Northern Hemisphere should be balanced by land in the south.John Noble Wilford: The Mapmakers, the Story of the Great Pioneers in Cartography from Antiquity to Space Age, p. 139, Vintage Books, Random House 1982, {{ISBN|0-394-75303-8}} This theory of balancing land is on record as early as the 5th century on maps by Macrobius.Ambrosius Aurelius Theodosius Macrobius, [https://dx.doi.org/10.7891/e-manuscripta-16478 Zonenkarte]. Retrieved 7 July 2014.

The earliest recorded use of the word Australia in English was in 1625 in "A note of Australia del Espíritu Santo, written by Sir Richard Hakluyt", published by Samuel Purchas in Hakluytus Posthumus, a variation of the original Spanish name {{Langx|es|Austrialia del Espiritu Santo|label=none}} ({{translation |Southern-Austrian Land of the Holy Spirit}}){{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63620938 |title=THE ILLUSTRATED SYDNEY NEWS |newspaper=Illustrated Sydney News |date=26 January 1888 |accessdate=29 January 2012 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} coined by navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós in 1606 for the largest island of Vanuatu, believing his expedition had reached Terra Australis.{{sfnp |Purchas |1625 |p=1422 }} This is a rare combination of terms Austral and Austria, the latter in honour of the Habsburg dynasty that ruled Spain at the time.[https://books.google.com/books?id=uZ_sAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA107 Barber, Peter et al. Mapping Our World: Terra Incognita To Australia, National Library of Australia, 2013, p. 107.] The Dutch adjectival form {{Lang|nl|Australische}} was used in a Dutch book in Batavia (now Jakarta) in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DDNEle_1NzkC&pg=PA299|page=299|last=Scott|first=Ernest|orig-date=1914|title=The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders|isbn=978-1-4191-6948-9|year=2004|publisher=Kessinger Publishing}} Australia was later used in a 1693 translation of {{Langx|fr|Les Aventures de Jacques Sadeur dans la Découverte et le Voyage de la Terre Australe|label=none}}, a 1676 French novel by Gabriel de Foigny, under the pen-name Jacques Sadeur.Baker, Sidney J. (1966) The Australian Language, 2nd ed. Referring to the entire South Pacific region, Alexander Dalrymple used it in An Historical Collection of Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean in 1771.

The name Australia was specifically applied to the continent for the first time in 1794, with the botanists George Shaw and James Smith writing of "the vast island, or rather continent, of Australia, Australasia or New Holland" in their 1793 Zoology and Botany of New Holland,

name="Ferguson">{{Cite book|last=Ferguson|first=John Alexander|title=Bibliography of Australia: 1784–1830|via=National Library of Australia|year=1975|edition=reprint|volume=1|page=77|publisher=National Library Australia |isbn=0-642-99044-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KQzgC-xeQkIC}} and James Wilson including it on a 1799 chart.{{sfnp |Estensen |2002 |p=354 }}

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|File:Typus Orbis Terrarum drawn by Abraham Ortelius.jpg

|1570 map by Abraham Ortelius depicting Terra Australis Nondum Cognita as a large continent on the bottom of the map and also an Arctic continent

|File:Austrialia First use of word Quiros.jpg

|The name Austrialia was used for the first time by Queirós{{nbsp}}on 1 May 1606 Tridentine calendar[https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/spanish-quest-terra-australis "He named it Austrialia del Espiritu Santo and claimed it for Spain"] The Spanish quest for Terra Australis | State Library of New South Wales Page 1.[http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/quiros-pedro-fernandez-de-2568 "before reaching the New Hebrides or what he called Austrialis del Espiritu Santo on 3 May 1606"] Quiros, Pedro Fernandez de (1563–1615) Para 4 | Australian Dictionary of Biography.Cartouche of La Gran Baya de S. Philippe y S. Santiago, Prado y Tovar ca.1606-1614 (España. Ministerio de Cultura. Archivo General de Simancas). or May 3 Roman Calendar.

|File:Australia First use of word Shaw Zoology.jpg

|alt3=Image with text reading: The vast Island or rather Continent of Australia, Astralasia, or New Holland, which has so lately attracted the particular attention of European navigators and naturalists, seems to abound in scenes of peculiar wildness and fertility; while the wretched natives of many of those dreary districts seem less elevated above the inferior animals than in any other part of the known world; Caffraria itself not excepted; as well as less endued

|The name Australia was specifically applied to the continent for the first time in 1794.[https://archive.org/details/ZoologyNewHolla1Shaw "First Instance of the Word Australia being applied specifically to the Continent - in 1794"] Zoology of New Holland – Shaw, George, 1751–1813; Sowerby, James, 1757–1822 Page 2.

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The name Australia was popularised by the explorer Matthew Flinders, who pushed for it to be formally adopted as early as 1804.{{cite web|last1=Flinders|first1=Matthew|title=Letter from Matthew Flinders originally enclosing a chart of 'New Holland' (Australia)|url=http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-RGO-00014-00051/358|website=cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk|publisher=Cambridge Digital Library|accessdate=18 July 2014}} When preparing his manuscript and charts for his 1814 A Voyage to Terra Australis, he was persuaded by his patron, Joseph Banks, to use the term Terra Australis as this was the name most familiar to the public. Flinders did so, and published the following rationale:{{sfnp |Flinders |1814 |p=iii }}

{{blockquote |text=There is no probability, that any other detached body of land, of nearly equal extent, will ever be found in a more southern latitude; the name Terra Australis will, therefore, remain descriptive of the geographical importance of this country, and of its situation on the globe: it has antiquity to recommend it; and, having no reference to either of the two claiming nations, appears to be less objectionable than any other which could have been selected.}}

In the footnote to this, Flinders wrote:{{sfnp |Flinders |1814 |p=iii }}

{{blockquote |text=Had I permitted myself any innovation on the original term, it would have been to convert it to AUSTRALIA; as being more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth.}}

In the first volume of A Voyage to Terra Australis this is the only occurrence of Australia as a single word, although Flinders also recounts Australia del Espiritu Santo,{{sfnp |Flinders |1814 |p=viii }} and in Appendix III found in the second volume, Robert Brown's General remarks, geographical and systematical, on the botany of Terra Australis,{{sfnp |Brown |1814 |pp=533–612 }} Brown makes use of the adjectival form Australian throughout{{Cite book|editor=Bennett, J. J.|year=1866–68|title=The Miscellaneous Botanical Works of Robert Brown, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S.|volume=2|chapter=General remarks, geographical and systematical, on the botany of Terra Australis|pages=1–89|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/generalremarksge00brow}}{{snd}}the first known use of that form.{{Cite book|first=David|last=Mabberley|year=1985|title=Jupiter botanicus: Robert Brown of the British Museum|publisher=British Museum (Natural History)|isbn=3-7682-1408-7}} Despite popular conception, the book was not instrumental in the adoption of the name; rather, the name became gradually accepted over the subsequent ten years.{{sfnp |Estensen |2002 |p=450 }}

The first time that the name Australia appears to have been officially used was in a despatch to Lord Bathurst of 4 April 1817 in which Governor Lachlan Macquarie acknowledges the receipt of Flinders' charts of Australia.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58549315 |title=WHO NAMED AUSTRALIA? |newspaper=The Maillocation=Adelaide|date=11 February 1928 |accessdate=14 February 2012 |page=16 |via=National Library of Australia}} On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted.Weekend Australian, 30–31 December 2000, p. 16 In 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia.{{Cite book|last=Department of Immigration and Citizenship|title=Life in Australia|publisher=Commonwealth of Australia|year=2007|page=11|isbn=978-1-921446-30-6|url=http://www.immi.gov.au/living-in-australia/values/book/english/lia_english_part1.pdf|accessdate=30 March 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091017070336/http://www.immi.gov.au/living-in-australia/values/book/english/lia_english_part1.pdf|archive-date=17 October 2009|url-status=dead}}

File:Karta över Polynesien eller femte delen af jordklotet, 1780.jpg

Ulimaroa was a name given to Australia by the Swedish geographer and cartographer Daniel Djurberg in 1776.{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/linguafranca/2012-02-11/3824592|title=Ulimaroa: a misnomer for Australia|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|year=2012|accessdate=13 October 2016}} Djurberg adapted the name from Olhemaroa, a Māori word found in Hawkesworth's edition of Captain James Cook and Sir Joseph Banks' journals which is thought to have been a misunderstood translation{{snd}}the Māori were actually referring to Grand Terre, the largest island of New Caledonia. Djurberg believed the name meant something like "big red land", whereas modern linguists believe it meant "long arm" (or hand){{snd}}echoing the geography of Grand Terre. The spurious name continued to be reproduced on certain European maps, particularly some Austrian, Czech, German and Swedish maps, until around 1820, including in Carl Almqvist's 1817 novel {{Lang|sv|Parjumouf Saga ifrån Nya Holland}} (Stockholm, 1817). Nowadays, in Māori the term for Australia is {{Lang|mi|Ahitereiria}}.

The sovereign country Australia, formed in 1901 by the Federation of the six British colonies, is officially known as The Commonwealth of Australia, abbreviated within the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act and the Constitution of Australia to "the Commonwealth".{{cite web |url=http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2005Q00193/0332ed71-e2d9-4451-b6d1-33ec4b570e9f |title=Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act |publisher=ComLaw |date=9 July 1900 |access-date=18 December 2019}} The term Commonwealth was preferred over other options by a substantial majority of the delegates at the 1891 constitutional convention, giving the message that "the [six colonies] were not uniting into one country out of fear or after a war, but for the common good".{{cite web|url=http://www.cefa.org.au/ccf/why-are-we-called-%E2%80%98commonwealth-australia%E2%80%99|title=Why are we called the 'Commonwealth of Australia'?|date=10 March 2017|website=Constitution Education Fund|access-date=20 February 2025}}

The country has been referred to colloquially as Oz by people outside the country since the middle of the 20th century; and by Australians in more recent times.{{Cite web |last= |first= |last2= |title=Meanings and origins of Australian words and idioms |url=https://slll.cass.anu.edu.au/centres/andc/meanings-origins/o |access-date=2024-09-25 |website=Australian National University |language=en}}

The Australian National University reports that the "word Oz reproduces in writing the pronunciation of an abbreviation for Aussie, Australia, or Australian. The first evidence appears as Oss in 1908, and this form is likely to rhyme with boss. Overwhelmingly the later evidence (after 1944) is for the Oz spelling, with the final sound pronounced as ‘z’."

Oz is often taken as an oblique reference to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), a children's book by L. Frank Baum. Baum's fictional Land of Oz gained worldwide popularity with the 1939 release of the musical movie, The Wizard of Oz.Jacobson, H. (1988) In the Land of Oz, Penguin, {{ISBN|0-14-010966-8}}. The spelling Oz is likely to have been influenced by the 1939 movie, though the pronunciation was probably always with a /z/, as it is also for Aussie, sometimes spelt Ozzie.Partridge, Eric, et al., The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, Taylor & Francis, 2006, {{ISBN|0-415-25938-X}}, entries "Oz" and "Ozzie", p. 1431. In 1988, an American opinion was that Australians' "image of Australia as a 'Land of Oz' is not new, and dedication to it runs deep".The Americana Annual: 1988, Americana Corporation, vol. 13, 1989, p. 66, {{ISBN|0-7172-0220-8}} The Baz Luhrmann film Australia (2008) makes repeated reference to The Wizard of Oz, which appeared just before the wartime action of Australia.

John Algeo has speculated that Baum was inspired by Australia, in naming the Land of Oz: "In Ozma of Oz (1907), Dorothy gets back to Oz as the result of a storm at sea while she and Uncle Henry are travelling by ship to Australia. So, like Australia, Oz is somewhere to the west of California. Like Australia, Oz is an island continent. Like Australia, Oz has inhabited regions bordering on a great desert. One might almost imagine that Baum intended Oz to be Australia, or perhaps a magical land in the centre of the great Australian desert."Algeo, J., "Australia as the Land of Oz", American Speech, Vol. 65, No. 1, 1990, pp. 86–89. This, however, contradicts Baum's own account of the origin of the name.Online Etymology Dictionary, entry for "[https://www.etymonline.com/word/Oz Oz]": "inspired by a three-drawer desktop cabinet letter file, the last drawer labeled O-Z."

Australia's initial ccTLD was oz, with such domains moved to .oz.au, as discussed in Historical ccTLDs.

The Māori name Ahitereiria appears in the Māori name for Food Standards Australia New Zealand, "{{Lang|mi|Te Mana Kounga Kai – Ahitereiria me Aotearoa}}".{{Cite web |date=2019-08-05 |title=Food Standards Australia New Zealand |url=https://www.govt.nz/organisations/food-standards-australia-new-zealand/ |access-date=2024-09-25 |website=New Zealand Government |language=en-NZ}}

Australia is colloquially known as "the Land Down Under" (or just "Down Under"), which derives from the country's position in the Southern Hemisphere, near the antipodes of the United Kingdom. The term was first recorded in print in 1886, and was popularised internationally by the 1980 song of the same name by Men at Work.Oxford English Dictionary (Electronic), Version 4.0, entry for "[http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/57306 down under]". The dictionary recodes the first published use in 1886 by J. A. Froude in Oceana p. 92 "We were to bid adieu to the 'Australasian'…She had carried us safely down under." Other less common nicknames include "Straya" ("Australia" pronounced in an exaggerated Strine manner), and "Aussie", which is usually used as a demonym, but occasionally extended to the country as a whole (especially in New Zealand).{{sfnp |Butler |2009 }} More poetic epithets used within Australia include "the Great Southern Land" (re-popularised by a 1980s rock song, and not to be confused with the Great Southern region of Western Australia),Helen Trinca (14 February 2015). [http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/western-values-perth-now-and-then/story-fn9n8gph-1227217398909 Western values: Perth now and then] – The Australian. Retrieved 10 September 2015. "the Lucky Country" (deriving from Donald Horne's 1964 book of the same name), and two phrases deriving from Dorothea Mackellar's 1908 poem "My Country" – "the sunburnt country" and "the wide brown land".Bridie Smith (8 April 2015). [http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/a-sunburnt-country-spotted-from-space-20150407-1mfxvz.html "A sunburnt country spotted from space"] – The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 10 September 2015.Margaret Smith (17 January 2015). [http://www.smh.com.au/national/what-if-the-french-had-settled-australia-first-20150114-12o5na.html "What if the French had settled Australia first?"] – The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 10 September 2015.

{{Reflist |30em}}

{{Refbegin |30em |indent=yes}}

• {{cite Q |Q133863530 |mode=cs1 |contributor-last=Brown |contributor-first=Robert |contributor-link=Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773) |last=Flinders |first=Matthew |author-link=Matthew Flinders |contribution=Appendix III: General Remarks, Geographical and Systematical, on the Botany of Terra Australis |contribution-url=https://archive.org/details/voyageTerraAustv2Flin/page/533 |pages=533–612 }}{{sfn whitelist|CITEREFBrown1814}}
• {{cite Q |Q131699806 |mode=cs1 |editor-last=Butler |editor-first=Susan Margaret |editor-link=Susan Margaret Butler |chapter=Australian pronunciations }}{{sfn whitelist|CITEREFButler2005}}
• {{cite Q |Q133889086 |mode=cs1 |editor-last=Butler |editor-first=Susan Margaret |editor-link=Susan Margaret Butler }}{{sfn whitelist|CITEREFButler2009}}
• {{cite book |last=Estensen |first=Miriam |year=2002 |title=The Life of Matthew Flinders |publisher=Allen & Unwin |isbn=1-74114-152-4 |quote=Flinders was not the first to use the name Australia. He may have known it from a 1799 chart of navigator James Wilson, possibly from a 1622 account of the voyage of Willem Schouten and Jacob Lemaire, or some other source. }}
• {{cite Q |Q19027014 |mode=cs1 |last=Flinders |first=Matthew |author-link=Matthew Flinders }}{{sfn whitelist|CITEREFFlinders1814}}
• {{cite journal |last=Gerritsen |first=Rupert |author-link=Rupert Gerritsen |year=2013 |title=A note on 'Australia' or 'Austrialia' |pages=23–30 |journal=The Globe |publisher=Australian and New Zealand Map Society |volume=72 |url=https://rupertgerritsen.tripod.com/pdf/published/Austrialia_Globe_72_2013_pp23-30.pdf |access-date=2025-04-17 |issn=0311-3930 }}
• {{cite Q |Q133888203 |mode=cs1 |last=Purchas |first=Samuel |author-link=Samuel Purchas |chapter=Chapter 10, The Copie of a Petition presented to the King of Spaine |pages=1422–1432 |chapter-url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbcdrake.d0404/?sp=295&st=image&r=-0.059,-0.031,1.212,0.765,0 |access-date=2025-04-17 |via=Library of Congress }}{{sfn whitelist|CITEREFPurchas1625}}

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{{subject bar |auto=0 |wikt=Australia |portal1=Australia }}

Australia

Name