Epirus - Name and Etymology

Name and Etymology

The name Epirus comes from Greek: Ἤπειρος, Ēpeiros (in both Doric Greek and the native Northwestern Greek: Ἅπειρος, Ápeiros), meaning "mainland". It is thought to come from an Indo-European root *apero- 'coast', and was originally applied to the mainland opposite Corfu and the Ionian islands. Epirus for the Greeks represented the "epitome" of a hardy, often inhospitable land that was unsuited for cultivation and therefore needed hard labor to yield a livelihood; hence it was called "εὔανδρος" (eýandros, i.e. of hardy -literally: "good"- men). The local name was stamped on the coinage of the unified Epirote commonwealth: ΑΠΕΙΡΟΤΑΝ (Āpeirōtān, Attic Greek equivalent: Ēpeirōtōn, i.e. "of the Epirotes", see image right). The Albanian name for the region is Epiri, deriving from the Greek.