Caribbee
/ˈkærɪbiː/noun
An old English term for the Caribbean region and its islands, now largely archaic or historical.
Did you know?The name ultimately comes from the Carib or Kalinago people, and early European accounts helped cast the Caribbean as a place of menace, feeding centuries of myth-making about the sea.
Etymological Timeline
Pre-Columbian
Carib
karibna
“The name of an Indigenous people of the Lesser Antilles and nearby coasts”
Late 15th Century
Spanish
Caribe
“A name applied by Spaniards to the Carib people and, by extension, the islands associated with them”
16th Century
French
Caraïbe
“The Caribbean region or its inhabitants”
16th Century
English
Caribbee
“An English form referring to the Carib people or the Caribbean islands”
Modern English
English
Caribbean
“The sea, region, and islands of the Caribbean”
Explore more surprising origins