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Korea

//kəˈɹi.ə// name, slang

Definitions

Proper Noun

1
A geographic region consisting of two countries in East Asia, commonly known as South Korea and North Korea; formerly a single country. countable, uncountable
"After the death of the empreſs Papûſha he had been baniſhed into Korea, from whence he was removed to Quey-lin Fû, the capital of Quang-ſi."
2
A geographic region consisting of two countries in East Asia, commonly known as South Korea and North Korea; formerly a single country.; South Korea: A country in East Asia, comprising the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. countable, informal, uncountable
3
A geographic region consisting of two countries in East Asia, commonly known as South Korea and North Korea; formerly a single country.; North Korea: A country in East Asia, whose territory consists of the northern part of Korea. countable, rare, uncountable
4
A peninsula in East Asia, containing the countries of North Korea and South Korea; in full, Korean Peninsula. countable, uncountable

Etymology

First attested as Core in the 1598 English translation of the 1596 Itinerario of Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, from the original Dutch Core, itself from Portuguese according to van Linschoten's account. The spelling Corea was more common in Early Modern English, likely through Core + -ia. Ultimately a sixteenth-century borrowing by Europeans from some variety of Chinese. Compare Mandarin 高麗 /高丽 (Gāolí) but especially Hokkien 高麗 /高丽 (Ko-lê), which matches the Dutch-Portuguese vowels exactly. These are Chinese pronunciations of Sino-Korean 고려(高麗) (Goryeo), Korea's official name between 918 and 1394 and still used by Chinese people to refer to the country for centuries thereafter; this itself being a shortening of 高句麗 (“Goguryeo”), an ancient Korean kingdom in the first millennium. Doublet of Goryeo, directly from Korean. Some Korean authors claim an Arabic intermediary instead, but this is impossible because the actual medieval Arabic word for Korea was a variant of السيلى (al-sīlā, see also Silla).

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