Etymology

Fiji

F4I1J8I1

Today it means: A country and archipelago of over 300 islands in Melanesia in Oceania. Capital and largest city: Suva. Full definition →

Tongan Fisi ← Proto-Polynesian *fiti
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Polynesian*fiti
  2. TonganFisi
  3. English todayFiji

Borrowed from Tongan Fisi (historically pronounced with a palatal affricate, IPA⁽ᵏᵉʸ⁾: [ˈfit͡ʃi]), itself borrowed from Fijian Viti, from Proto‐Central Pacific *viti ‘east, sunrise’. The English spelling ‘Fiji’ was popularized by Captain James Cook’s phonetic transcription of the 18th‐century Tongan pronunciation.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.