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What do country names (ones you are affiliated with or know of) mean in their own language? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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Not something I thought of a lot when I was back in US since USA is... a pretty bureaucratic name by all means. But I just realized that some countries have really fascinating names in their local language

Like how China names itself Central/Middle country in a very grandiose way (as in, we are the center of the world), or Japan being "land of the rising sun"

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[–] 4 points 1 year ago

I wouldn't say it's a definitive answer. While there's no expert consensus on the etymology of Mexico, it's often argued to mean the "place in the navel of the moon" in Nahuatl:

metztli (moon), xictli (navel or center) y co (place)

There's no reference to that on the list even though it's mentioned in another article:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Mexico

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