Etymology

Austronesia

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Today it means: Those areas of the world, mostly in Southeast Asia and the Pacific but also including Madagascar, that are inhabited by speakers of Austronesian languages. Full definition →

Latin austro- ← Ancient Greek νῆσος
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromνῆσος“island”
  2. Latin · derived fromaustro-“southern”
  3. English todayAustronesia

Back-formation from Austronesian (from Latin austro- (“southern”) + Ancient Greek νῆσος (nêsos, “island”) + -ia).

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekνῆσος all →

MacronesiaMeganesianesosilicate

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.