Etymology

Yugoslavia

Yu·go·sla·vi·a
Y4U1G2O1S1L1A1V4I1A1

Today it means: A former country in Southeastern Europe in the Balkans, now split into 6 countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Full definition →

Serbo-Croatian Jugoslavija
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The story

  1. Serbo-Croatian · borrowed fromJugoslavija
  2. English todayYugoslavia

Borrowed from Serbo-Croatian Jugoslavija, in turn from jug (“south”) and slavija (“Slavia, the land of the Slavs”). Literally, the land of the South Slavs. By surface analysis, Yugoslav + -ia.

Words from the same roots

Serbo-CroatianJugoslavija all →

South Slavia

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.