Africa

• Afrika (sometimes used in African-American Vernacular)
• Affrike (archaic)
• Afric (poetic, archaic)
• Africk (obsolete)
• Afficky (obsolete)

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”).

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

  • Audio (Canada):

    (file)

• (General South African) IPA^(key): /ɛfrɨkə/
• Rhymes: -æfɹɪkə
• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ˈɑːfrɪkɑː/

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.

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

   the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa

   • 2025 January 18, Nimi Princewill, “Across Africa, Russia is growing in influence. What might Moscow want?”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     As Russia’s foothold in Africa expands – notably in the mineral-rich Sahel region that is beset by recurring coups, armed rebellion and extremist insurgency – anti-Western sentiments, partly fueled by Russian propaganda, are engineering the exit of Western troops from swathes of territory.

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.

5. (historical) A former province of the Roman Empire, containing what is now Tunisia, northeastern Algeria and portions of coastal Libya; existing from 146 BC (initially in the Roman Republic) through 698 AD, except for 439 through 534 AD, when it was occupied by the Vandals.
6. A surname.

• Subsahara

• Africanish
• Afrikaans
• Afucka
• Apefrica
• Apefrican

• → Swahili: Afrika

• AFAICR, Faraci

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈafrika/

Africa f

1. Africa (the continent south of Europe and between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans)

From Latin Africa.

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

Africa f

1. Africa (the continent south of Europe and between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans)
2. (historical) Africa (a former province of the Roman Empire, containing what is now Tunisia and portions of coastal Algeria and Libya)

• Faraci, farcia

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.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈaː.frɪ.ka]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈaː.fri.ka]

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 former province of the Roman Empire, containing what is now Tunisia and portions of coastal Algeria and Libya)
3. Africa (the continent south of Europe and between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans) (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.

First-declension noun, singular only.

• āfricānus
• āfricus

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

• Middle Persian: [Term?] (/⁠frīgā⁠/)

• "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.

From Latin Africa.

Africa f

1. Africa (the continent south of Europe and between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans)
2. (historical) Africa (a former province of the Roman Empire, containing what is now Tunisia and portions of coastal Algeria and Libya)

• african

From Latin Africa.

Africa m

1. Africa

• Joseph Bosworth, T. Northcote Toller (1898) “Africa”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Borrowed from Latin Africa.

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

Africa f

1. Africa (the continent south of Europe and between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans)
2. (historical) Africa (a former province of the Roman Empire, containing what is now Tunisia and portions of coastal Algeria and Libya)