Chersonese

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈkɜːsəˌniːs/

Definitions

1. A narrow strip of land bordered by water on three sides and connected to a larger landmass, forming a peninsula-like geographical formation
2. a peninsula or narrow landmass surrounded mostly by water and joined to a continent or larger territory
3. a geographic formation consisting of land projecting into water with three sides bordered by sea or ocean while remaining attached to a larger mainland

Etymology: The Greek word "khersónēsos" was built from two plain parts: "khérsos," meaning dry land, and "nêsos," meaning island. Its literal sense was "dry-land island," a nice description of a place that looks like an island but is still attached to the mainland by a neck of land. The ancient name first belonged to one specific place, the Gallipoli peninsula in what is now Turkey, and only later came to mean any peninsula. The Romans borrowed the term as "Chersonēsus," and it passed into English from that Latin form. Its best-known later use was the "Golden Chersonese," a name European writers gave to lands in Southeast Asia, most often the Malay Peninsula, which the Greek word had been stretched to cover.