Europe as geographical concept

Have you ever wondered how Europe got its name? I mean, we talked about the beautiful Phoenician princess, but how did this word end up with the meaning it has today?

The etymology of the word is uncertain. Some scholars believe it derives from the Greek words eurys and ops, meaning ‘wide-gazed’ or ‘broad of aspect’, while others trace its origins to the Semitic Akkadian language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia.

As an abstract geographical term, the word Europe was used as early as the 6th century BCE in the Homeric hymn to Delian Apollo; however, it does not indicate a specific territory. The famous historiographer Herodotus (4.45) was one of the first to use the word in more or less the same meaning as today, when he divided the world into three parts: Europe, Asia and Libya (Africa). The division between Europe and Asia was not clear, as later authors like the geographer Strabo (11.1) defined the river Don as the border, while Herodotus preferred the river Rioni.

Even in modern times, precisely defining the limits of Europe has proven to be a difficult task. The traditional definition of ‘continent’ as a “large land mass on the earth's surface, surrounded, or mainly surrounded, by sea and usually consisting of various countries” does not seem to fit this case.See the Cambridge Dictionary, lemma ‘continent’ Europe is inseparably connected with Asia, so geographers use other landmarks, like the Ural Mountains, to distinguish between the two. However, we should always bear in mind that such scientific divisions can be partly conventional, as their goal is to facilitate a better understanding of the world for humans and thus sometimes are not dictated by physical reality.