Antilles

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group of islands located in the Caribbean Sea, known for their diverse cultures and historical significance
2. A chain of islands in the Caribbean, which includes notable territories such as Puerto Rico and the Bahamas
3. An archipelago in the West Indies, recognized for its tropical climate, biodiversity, and tourism appeal

Etymology: The Antilles are named after a phantom. Medieval European mapmakers placed a legendary island called Antillia in the Atlantic, west of Spain and Portugal, and sailors long searched for it. When Spanish explorers reached the Caribbean in the late 1400s, they found real islands in roughly that spot and carried the old name across to them. Where the name itself came from is unresolved. It likely traces to "Antulia," a form that appears in some medieval sources, but scholars have proposed many different explanations and none is settled. Some of those suggestions are little more than guesses, so the origin of the name remains genuinely open. The name was then applied to the islands in a broader sense. The Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles, two arcs of islands, preserve the old label in modern geography, so a fantasy destination on an old map still shapes how the Caribbean is divided today.