Etymology

Karelia

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Today it means: A historical region of Northern Europe, located to the north of Saint Petersburg and politically split between Russia and Finland. Full definition →

Medieval Latin Carēlia ← Finnish Karjala ← Old Swedish Karelen
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The story

  1. Old SwedishKarelen
  2. FinnishKarjala
  3. Medieval LatinCarēlia
  4. English todayKarelia

From Medieval Latin Carelia (akin to Russian Каре́лия (Karélija)), a Latinized form of Swedish Karelen. The Swedish word was probably mediated through Old Novgorodian Корѣла (Korěla), itself from the Finnic endonym (compare Finnish Karjala, which see for more).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.