Module 6 ( 7.Describe the history of the name"Australia". Where does it come from and when was it first used in English? ) :

Name

Australia's name is derived from the Latin phrase terra australis incognita meaning 'unknown south land' in reference to the as yet unknown land mass believed to lie in the south. Portuguese sailor Pedro Ferdandez de Quiros searched for this new land in 1606, and called it Austrialia del es spiritu Santo or 'Great South Land of the Holy Spirit'. Different variations on the name were used in many languages, but in 1814 when explorer Matthew Flinders published his work 'A Voyage to Terra Australis', he used the term 'Australia' within the book and it gained popular usage from there.