Mauritania
/ˌmɔːrɪˈteɪniə/noun
A country in northwestern Africa, named after the ancient Roman province of Mauretania.
Did you know?Ancient Mauretania was not the same territory as the modern country: Rome divided it into Mauretania Caesariensis and Mauretania Tingitana, while modern Mauritania adopted the ancient name in 1960.
Etymological Timeline
Before 1st Century BCE
North African ethnonym
Mauri
“Name used for an indigenous people of the western Maghreb; its deeper origin is uncertain.”
1st Century BCE
Greek
Maurousioi
“Greek form referring to the Mauri of North Africa.”
1st Century BCE–1st Century CE
Latin
Mauri
“Roman name for the North African people later associated with the word Moor.”
1st Century CE
Latin
Mauretania
“Roman provincial name, literally the territory or land of the Mauri.”
Medieval Period
Old French and Medieval Latin
More / Mauritania
“Moor and related forms referred to Muslim or North African peoples; the ancient provincial name survived in learned geography.”
1960
Modern English
Mauritania
“Name adopted by the newly independent northwestern African state, reviving the ancient Roman geographical term.”