Guiana

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A historical region on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America, now split among several independent countries and French overseas territory
2. The coastal area of northeastern South America that includes Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana and borders the Atlantic Ocean
3. A tropical territory in northeastern South America, historically divided into British, Dutch and French colonies and bordered by Brazil and Venezuela

Etymology: The name "Guiana" belongs to a whole region of northeastern South America, and it began as a description of the water rather than of the land. It is generally traced to a local indigenous language, most likely one of the Cariban or Arawakan families, where it is thought to have meant "land of many waters". That fits a coastline cut by broad rivers, rain-soaked forests and swamps, which European visitors encountered before they knew anything else about the territory. The name reached Europe through the French. Their spelling gave rise to the town of Cayenne, the colonial centre on the coast of what is now French Guiana, and the same root gave the region the form "Guiana" in French and English. The variant "Guyana" comes from the English-language spelling that later became the name of the independent country on the mainland.