Americas
(Redirected from North America)
The Americas, also known as the "New World", are two continents in the Western Hemisphere: North America and South America.
History
Originally, "the Americas" only referred to South America, because the Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci (from whose name "America" is derived) travelled along the Brazilian and Argentinian coasts. In the United States of America, the singular term "America" usually refers to the US, and citizens of the US are called "Americans".[1] The Americas, with their 57 countries, cover 8.3% (43 million km²) of the Earth's total surface area (28.4% of its land area) and contain about 13.2% of the human population (as of 2020 964,920,000 million people, as of 2021 1,02 billion people).
External links
Encyclopedias
References
- ↑ "America." The Oxford Companion to the English Language (ISBN 0-19-214183-X). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 33: "[16c: from the feminine of Americus, the Latinized first name of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512). A claim is also made for the name of Richard Ameryk, sheriff of Bristol and patron of John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), the 16c Anglo-Italian explorer of North America. The name America first appeared on a map in 1507 by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, referring to the area now called Brazil. Since the 16c, a name of the western hemisphere, often in the plural Americas and more or less synonymous with the New World. Since the 18c, a name of the United States of America. The second sense is now primary in English: ... However, the term is open to uncertainties: ..."
