The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas, certain Atlantic and Pacific oceanic islands to which the closest continental shelf is that of the Americas (such as Bermuda), and sometimes Oceania (Australasia). The term originated in the early 16th century, shortly after America was discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European Middle Ages, who had thought of the world as consisting of Europe, Asia, and Africa only: collectively now referred to as the Old World. The Americas were also referred to as the "fourth part of the world".
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Famous quotes containing the word world:
“It is not quite the same when we are seventy-two as when we are twenty-seven; still I am glad of what is left, and wish we might both hold out till the victory we have sought is won, but all the same the victory is coming. In the aftertime the world will be the better for it.”
—Lucy Stone (1818–1893)