Etymology
The name Greenland comes from the early Scandinavian settlers. In the Icelandic sagas, it is said that Norwegian-born Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland for murder. Along with extended family and thralls, he set out in ships to find a land rumored to lie to the northwest. After settling there, he named the land Grœnland (translated as "Greenland"), supposedly in the hope that the pleasant name would attract settlers.
The official name of the country is the Kalaallit Nunaat which literally means "the land of the Kalaallit" in Greenlandic (Kalaallisut). The Kalaallit are the indigenous Greenlandic Inuit people living in the western region of the country.
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Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
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—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)