etymology - Where did the word 'Greece' come from?


The Greeks I've met say something that to my ears sounds like 'Elatha'.



Answer



What you are hearing is most likely the correct Greek pronunciation of Elláda (Ελλάδα). This is the modern Greek word for the name of their country, ultimately derived from the Ancient Greek Hellás (Ἑλλάς).


The English name for the country, "Greece", derives from the Latin name "Graecia". Wiktionary gives a fairly full etymology:



From Latin Graecia < Ancient Greek Γραικός (Graikos), a character in Greek mythology, the son of Thessalos, the king of Fthia, from whom Ἑλλάς (Hellas, “Greece”) and Ἕλληνες (Hellenes, “the Greeks”) got their names.



Although this entry explains the etymology of the name "Greece", it is admittedly slightly confusing about the etymology of "Hellas". This page gives a hypothetical etymology:



Etymology: From Ancient Greek (Hellas "Greece"), from prefix - (el-ελ "sun, bright, shiny", (elios, "sun")) + (las-λας "rock, stone"). : "The land of the sun and the rock".



I would not however want to comment on the veracity of this source. All that is known for sure is that Hellas originally referred to a small area within Ancient Greece and only later came to refer to all Greece. This Yahoo answer gives some handy details.


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