Phoenicia

Meaning

Proper Noun

• The land of city states of the Phoenicians which around 1000 BC was situated on the coast of present day Syria and Lebanon, and included the cities of Tyre and Sidon.
• The trading empire of the Phoenicians which spread across most of the eastern Mediterranean Sea as far west as Sicily.

Origin

• Borrowed from Latin Phoenice, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek Φοινίκη.
• The word is already found in the Mycenaean Greek ethnonym 𐀡𐀛𐀑𐀍. Ultimately from Egyptian fnḫw, f:n:x-w-V12:Z2 ‘Canaanites, Syrians’.