Etymology

Tripolitania

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Today it means: A historic region and former province in western Libya, centered around the coastal city of Tripoli. Full definition →

Ancient Greek Τριπολιτάνια
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · borrowed fromΤριπολιτάνια
  2. English todayTripolitania

From Ancient Greek Τριπολιτάνια (Tripolitánia), from Τριπολίτης (Tripolítēs, “Tripolitan”) + -ία (-ía, “forming abstract nouns”), from Τρίπολις (Trípolis, “Tripoli”) + -της (-tēs, “forming abstract nouns”), reanalyzed as Τρίπολ-ῑ́της (Trípol-ī́tēs) (compare πολίτης (polítēs) and Latin -ī̆tānus), from τρι- (tri-, “three”) + πόλις (pólis, “city”), referring to the three cities Oea, Sabratha and Leptis Magna.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.