New Guinea
/ˌnjuː ˈɡɪni/noun
New Guinea is the world’s second-largest island, located north of Australia and divided politically between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
Did you know?The name New Guinea was assigned by Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez in 1545, while the origin of the older name Guinea remains disputed and may derive from a West African place-name or ethnonym.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*néwos
“New or fresh; the reconstructed ancestor of English new and Latin novus.”
Old English
Old English
nīwe
“New, recent, or unused.”
Middle English
Middle English
newe
“New; the spelling and pronunciation gradually developed toward modern English new.”
15th–16th Century
Portuguese
Guiné
“Guinea, a name used for a region of the West African coast; its deeper origin is uncertain.”
1545
Spanish
Nueva Guinea
“New Guinea; Yñigo Ortiz de Retez reportedly applied the name after comparing the island’s people and landscape with Guinea in Africa.”
Modern English
English
New Guinea
“The established English name for the island, including the independent country of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia’s western provinces.”