Africa

See also: africa, áfrica, africà, África, and Àfrica

English

Alternative forms

• Afrika (sometimes used in AAVE)
• Affrike (archaic)
• Afric (poetic, archaic)
• Africk (obsolete)
• Afficky (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English Affrike, from Old French Affrique, Affrike, from Latin Āfrica, from Āfrī, singular Āfer (inhabitant of the country of Carthage), in turn either from:

• The Punic or Phoenician word 𐤏𐤐𐤓 (ʿpr /⁠ʿafar⁠/, “dust”), which has cognates in other Semitic languages.
• The Berber word ifri (“cave”), plural ifran, in reference to cave dwellers of Tunisia (see Tataouine).

Folk etymologies include:

• Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-) + φρίκη f (phríkē), meaning "without cold"
• Latin aprica (“sunny”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈæf.ɹɪ.kə/
• (General South African) IPA^(key): /ɛfrɨkə/

• Audio (Canada)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æfɹɪkə

Proper noun

Africa (countable and uncountable, plural Africas)

2. The continent that is south of Europe, east of the Atlantic Ocean, west of the Indian Ocean and north of Antarctica.

   the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa

   Synonym: (sometimes offensive, dated, informal) Dark Continent

3. (nonstandard, proscribed) Sub-Saharan Africa, contrasted with the Maghreb.
   • 2021 June 10, Abdelmajid Hannoum, The Invention of the Maghreb: Between Africa and the Middle East, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 205:

     The Sahara stood as an important marker between the Maghreb and Africa, not only in modern times but in times immemorial.

4. (historical) A province of the Roman Empire containing what is now modern Tunisia and portions of Libya.
5. A surname.

Hyponyms

Countries of Africa

Central Africa

• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Republic of the Congo

Eastern Africa

• Burundi
• Comoros
• Djibouti
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Kenya
• Seychelles
• Rwanda
• Somalia – Somaliland – Puntland
• Tanzania
• Uganda

Northern Africa

• Algeria
• Ceuta
• Egypt
• Libya
• Mauritania
• Melilla
• Morocco
• South Sudan
• Sudan
• Tunisia
• Western Sahara

Southern Africa

• Angola
• Botswana
• Lesotho
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Mauritius
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Reunion
• Swaziland
• South Africa
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

Western Africa

• Ambazonia
• Benin
• Burkina Faso
• Cameroon
• Cape Verde
• Côte d'Ivoire
• Equatorial Guinea
• Gabon
• The Gambia
• Ghana
• Guinea-Bissau
• Liberia
• Mali
• Niger
• Nigeria
• Sao Tome and Principe
• Senegal
• Sierra Leone
• Togo

• Subsahara

Derived terms

Derived terms

• Afrasia
• Africa-Eurasia
• African
• Africa time
• Black Africa
• darkest Africa
• British Central Africa
• Eurafrasia
• Eurafrica
• French Equatorial Africa
• German East Africa
• hinge of Africa
• Horn of Africa
• North Africa
• Pearl of Africa
• Portuguese East Africa
• Portuguese West Africa
• South Africa
• South West Africa
• sub-Saharan Africa
• West Africa

Related terms

• Africanish
• Afrikaans
• Apefrica
• Apefrican

Descendants

• → Swahili: Afrika

Translations

continent

• Acehnese: Afrika
• Adyghe: Африкэ (Afrikɛ)
• Afrikaans: Afrika (af)
• Akan: Afrika
• Albanian: Afrikë f (indefinite), Afrika (sq) f (definite)
• Amharic: አፍሪቃ (ʾäfriḳa)
• Arabic: أَفْرِيقِيَا (ar) f (ʔafrīqiyā), إِفْرِيقِيَا (ar) f (ʔifrīqiyā)

  Hijazi Arabic: أفريقيا f (ʔafrīqya)

• Armenian: Աֆրիկա (hy) (Afrika)
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܐܲܦܪܝܼܩܵܐ f (Āfrīqa)
• Asturian: África (ast)
• Azerbaijani: Afrika (az)
• Bambara: Afrika
• Bashkir: Африка (Afrika)
• Basque: Afrika (eu)
• Bavarian: Afrika
• Belarusian: А́фрыка f (Áfryka)
• Bengali: আফ্রিকা (bn) (aphrika)
• Brahui: Afríká
• Breton: Afrika (br) f
• Bulgarian: А́фрика (bg) f (Áfrika)
• Burmese: အာဖရိက (ahpa.ri.ka.)
• Carpathian Rusyn: А́фрика f (Áfryka)
• Catalan: Àfrica (ca) f
• Central Atlas Tamazight: ⵜⴰⴼⴻⵔⴽⴰ (taferka), ⵜⴰⴼⵔⵉⵇⵜ (tafriqt)
• Chechen: Африка (Afrika), Африк (Afrik)
• Cherokee: ᎬᎿᎨᏍᏛ (gvhnagesdv)
• Chichewa: Afirika
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 非洲 (fei¹ zau¹)

  Eastern Min: 非洲 (Hĭ-ciŭ)

  Hakka: 非洲 (Fî-chû)

  Hokkien: 非洲 (Hui-chiu)

  Mandarin: 非洲 (zh) (Fēizhōu), (rare) 阿非利加 (zh) (Āfēilìjiā)

  Wu: 非洲 (¹fi-tseu)

• Cornish: Afrika
• Corsican: Africa (co) f
• Crimean Tatar: Afrika
• Czech: Afrika (cs) f
• Danish: Afrika (da) n
• Dhivehi: އެފްރިކާ (dv) (efrikā)
• Dinka: Apirïka
• Dutch: Afrika (nl) n
• Dzongkha: ཨཕ་རི་ཀ (aph ri ka)
• Esperanto: Afriko (eo)
• Estonian: Aafrika (et)
• Faroese: Afrika f or n
• Finnish: Afrikka (fi)
• French: l’Afrique f
• Friulian: Afriche f
• Galician: África (gl) f
• Georgian: აფრიკა (ka) (apriḳa)
• German: Afrika (de) n
• Greek: Αφρική (el) f (Afrikí)

  Ancient: Ἀφρική f (Aphrikḗ), Λιβύη (Libúē)

  Ancient Greek: Ἀφρικὴ f (Aphrikḕ)

• Greenlandic: Afrika
• Gujarati: આફ્રિકા (āphrikā)
• Hausa: Afirka (ha)
• Hawaiian: ʻApelika
• Hebrew: אַפְרִיקָה (he) f (áfrika)
• Hindi: अफ़्रीका (hi) m (afrīkā), कालद्वीप m (kāladvīp, literally “black continent”)
• Hungarian: Afrika (hu)
• Icelandic: Afríka (is) f
• Ido: Afrika (io)
• Igbo: Eluàlà
• Ingrian: Afrikka
• Irish: an Afraic f

  Middle Irish: Afraicc f

  Old Irish: Afraicc f

• Italian: Africa (it) f
• Japanese: アフリカ (ja) (Afurika), (dated) 阿弗利加 (ja) (Afurika)
• Javanese: Afrika
• Kalmyk: Априк (Aprik)
• Kannada: ಆಫ್ರಿಕಾ (āphrikā)
• Karakalpak: Afrika
• Kashmiri: اَفریٖقہ (afrīqh)
• Kashubian: Afrika (csb) f
• Kazakh: Африка (kk) (Afrika)
• Khmer: អាហ្វ្រិក (ʼaafrɨk)
• Kongo: Afelika, Afrika, Katiopa
• Korean: 아프리카 (ko) (Apeurika)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: Efrîqa (ku)

• Kyrgyz: Африка (ky) (Afrika)
• Ladin: please add this translation if you can
• Ladino: Afrika
• Lao: ອາຟຣິກກາ (lo) (ʼāp rik kā), ອາຟຣິກາ (ʼāp ri kā), ອາຝະລິກາ (ʼā fa li kā), ອາຟຣິກ (ʼāp rik), ອາຟະລິກ (ʼā fa lik)
• Latin: Āfrica (la) f, Libya f
• Latvian: Āfrika (lv) f
• Lingala: Afríka
• Lithuanian: Afrika (lt) f
• Lü: ᦵᦝᧀᧈᦵᦋᦲᧁᧈ (foey¹tsoew¹)
• Macedonian: Африка f (Afrika)
• Malagasy: Afrika (mg)
• Malay: Afrika (ms)
• Malayalam: ആഫ്രിക്ക (ml) (āphrikka)
• Maltese: Afrika
• Manx: Yn Affrick f
• Maori: Āwherika
• Marathi: आफ्रिका (āphrikā)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: Африк (mn) (Afrik)

  Mongolian: ᠠᠹᠷᠢᠺᠠ (afrika)

• Moore: Afriki
• Navajo: Naakaii Łizhiní Bikéyah
• Nepali: अफ्रिका (ne) (aphrikā)
• Northern Sami: Afrihkká
• Northern Sotho: Afrika
• Northwestern Ojibwa: Makadewiiyaas-gichi-aki
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: Afrika (no) n

  Nynorsk: Afrika (nn) n

• Occitan: Africa (oc) f
• Odia: ଆଫ୍ରିକା (aphrika)
• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: Афрїка f (Afrika)

  Glagolitic: Ⰰⱇⱃⰻⰽⰰ f (Afrika)

• Old English: Affrica (ang) f
• Old French: Affrique f, Affrike f
• Ossetian: Африкӕ (Afrikæ)
• Pangasinan: Afrika
• Papiamentu: Afrika
• Pashto: افريقا (ps) (afrīqā)
• Persian:

  Classical Persian: آفْرِیقَا (fa) (āfrīqā)

  Dari: آفْرِیقَا (fa) (āfrīqā)

  Iranian Persian: آفْریقا (fa) (âfriğâ)

• Piedmontese: please add this translation if you can
• Pitcairn-Norfolk: Afreka
• Plautdietsch: Afrika (nds) f
• Polish: Afryka (pl) f
• Portuguese: África (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਅਫ਼ਰੀਕਾ (pa) (afarīkā)
• Romanian: Africa (ro) f
• Russian: А́фрика (ru) f (Áfrika)
• Rwanda-Rundi: Afurika
• Sanskrit: अफ्रीका (aphrīkā)
• Sardinian: Afrika
• Scottish Gaelic: Afraga m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: А̀фрика f

  Roman: Àfrika (sh) f

• Silesian: Afrika
• Sindhi: آفريڪا
• Sinhalese: අප්‍රිකාව (si) (aprikāwa)
• Slovak: Afrika (sk) f
• Slovene: Áfrika (sl) f
• Somali: Afrika
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: Afrika f

  Upper Sorbian: Afrika (hsb) f

• Sotho: Afrika (st)
• Southern Ndebele: Afrika
• Spanish: África (es) f
• Sranan Tongo: Afrika
• Sundanese: Afrika (su)
• Swahili: Afrika (sw)
• Swazi: Afrika
• Swedish: Afrika (sv) n
• Tagalog: Aprika (tl)
• Tajik: Африқо (tg) (Afriqo)
• Tamil: ஆப்பிரிக்கா (ta) (āppirikkā)
• Tatar: Африка (Afrika)
• Telugu: ఆఫ్రికా (te) (āphrikā)
• Thai: แอฟริกา (th) (ɛ́p-frí-gaa)
• Tibetan: ཨ་ཧྥེ་རི་ཁ (a hphe ri kha)
• Tigrinya: ኣፍሪቃ (ʾafriḳa)
• Tsonga: Afrika
• Tswana: Aforika
• Turkish: Afrika (tr)
• Turkmen: Afrika
• Ukrainian: А́фрика (uk) f (Áfryka)
• Urdu: اَفْرِیقَہ m (afrīqa), اَفْرِیقا m (afrīqā)
• Uyghur: ئافرىقا (ug) (afriqa)
• Uzbek: Afrika (uz)
• Vai: ꕉꔱꔸꕪ (Áfíríka)
• Venda: Afurika
• Venetian: please add this translation if you can
• Veps: Afrik
• Vietnamese: Châu Phi (vi) (洲非), Phi Châu (非洲), Phi (vi)
• Volapük: Frikop (vo), (obsolete) Fikop
• Võro: Afriga
• Votic: please add this translation if you can
• Walloon: Afrike (wa) f
• Waray-Waray: Aprika
• Welsh: Affrica (cy) f, Yr Affrig f
• West Flemish: ^{(please verify)} Afrika
• West Frisian: Afrika (fy) n
• Wolof: Afrig (wo)
• Xhosa: i-Afrika
• Yiddish: אַפֿריקע (afrike)
• Yoruba: Ilẹ̀ Adúláwọ̀, Afíríkà
• Zazaki: (Southern Zazaki) Afrika (diq)
• Zhuang: Feihcouh
• Zulu: i-Afrika

sub-Saharan Africa — see sub-Saharan Africa

historical: province of the Roman Empire

• Finnish: Africa (fi)
• Marathi: आफ्रिका m (āphrikā)

See also

• (continents) continent; Africa, America (North America, Central America, South America), Antarctica, Asia, Europe, Oceania ^{(Category: en:Continents)}

Anagrams

• AFAICR, Faraci

Corsican

Etymology

From Latin Africa. Cognates include Italian Africa and French Afrique.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈafrika/

Proper noun

Africa f

1. Africa (a continent)

Italian

Etymology

From Latin Africa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈa.fri.ka/
• Rhymes: -afrika
• Hyphenation: À‧fri‧ca

Proper noun

Africa f

1. Africa (a continent)

Related terms

Related terms

• africanismo
• africanista
• africanistica
• africano
• africo
• afroasiatico

See also

• (continents) continente; Africa, America (America meridionale, America settentrionale), Antartide, Asia, Europa, Oceania ^{(Category: it:Continents)}

Anagrams

• Faraci, farcia

Latin

Etymology

Feminine of āfricus/Āfricus, as a noun elliptic of terra āfrica/Āfrica (literally “the land of the Afri”). The adjective Āfricus comes from the name of the Āfrī (singular Āfer), a tribal people of the area near Carthage, by addition of the suffix -icus.

The Latin term formed alongside Greek ἡ Ἀφρική (hē Aphrikḗ), both terms being attested since the first century.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈaː.fri.ka/, [ˈäːfrɪkä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈa.fri.ka/, [ˈäːfrikä]

Proper noun

Āfrica f sg (genitive Āfricae); first declension

1. Northwestern Africa, the territory of Carthage, the African coast west of the Nile

   Nilus Africam ab Aethiopiā dispescens (Pliny 5, 9, 10, § 53)

2. Africa (a province of the Roman Empire) (later split into Africa Zeugitana and Africa Byzacena under Diocletian)
3. Africa as a continent, understood as the quarter of the globe south of the Mediterranean

   Si probare possemus Ligarium in Āfricā omnino non fuisse.

   If we could prove that Ligarius was not at all in Africa.

Declension

First-declension noun, singular only.

Case	Singular
Nominative	Āfrica
Genitive	Āfricae
Dative	Āfricae
Accusative	Āfricam
Ablative	Āfricā
Vocative	Āfrica

Related terms

• āfricānus
• āfricus

Descendants

• → Corsican: Africa
• → English: Africa
  • Tok Pisin: Afrika
  • → Malay: Afrika
• → Italian: Africa
• → Old French: Affrique
  • French: Afrique
  • Norman: Afrique
• → Romanian: Africa

References

• "Africa", in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• "Africa", in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Africa in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Occitan

Etymology

From Latin Africa.

Proper noun

Africa f

1. Africa (a continent)

Related terms

• african

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin Africa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈa.fri.ka/
• Hyphenation: A‧fri‧ca

Proper noun

Africa f

1. Africa (a continent)

Declension

declension of Africa (singular only)

	singular
f gender	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(o) Africă	Africa
genitive/dative	(unei) Africi	Africii
vocative	Africă, Africo

See also

• (continents) continent; Africa, America (America de Nord, America de Sud), Antarctica, Asia, Europa, Oceania ^{(Category: ro:Continents)}