On the etymology of the term "Philippines"

[wvwvw]

The term "Philippines" itself is etymologically Greek. As anyone who ever bothered to consult the etymology of the word "Philip" knows, "Philippines" means the country that loves horses. Was the name Philippines given to the country because historically the Philippines has had a lot of horses? Or perhaps because her people are known to engage in horse breeding, or the like, which may qualify them as great horse lovers?

Well, not really. The truth is that historically, the islands were given the name "Philippines" in 1543 by a commander of one of the ships during the Villalobos expedition (1542-1546 AD) in honor of Prince Philip of Spain. The captain's name was Bernardo de la Torre, also known as "Capitan Calabaza." Capitan Calabaza called "Las Felipinas" (=Spanish for "The Philippines") a group of eastern Philippine islands, including most likely Leyte and Mindanao. Later, the term "Philippines" was used as a blanket term to cover all of the Philippine islands (Agoncillo, History of the Filipino People, 8th ed., p. 74).

Prince Philip of Spain, after whom the islands were named, got his name, in turn, as a result of a common custom among European royalty to borrow names from admired leaders of Greek and Roman antiquity. Among these, the names of the Greek Macedonians Philip and Alexander occupied a prominent place, especially as their ancient adventures were widely known and very popular among western Europeans at the time. These two ancient kings symbolized certain values that European royalty wished to project to the public, such as, statesmanship, valor, and glory. This brings us back full circle to the original Greek word for Philip, to which the Philippine islands ultimately owe their name, if not directly, at least indirectly through the legacy that ancient Greeks left behind.

Our linguistic unraveling of the term Philippines does not end here. The word equivalent for the name Philip in Greek is "Philippos." Philippos is a compound Greek word composed of the words philos, which as we know means friend or lover (or to be friendly toward or to love); and ippos, which means horse. It stands to reason, then, that philippos (philos + ippos), or the anglicized version Philip, means lover of horses. This is why Philippines is translated in Greek as the country that loves horses! At least etymologically, then, the Philippines is more Greek than one might at first imagine! If only there were as many horses in the Philippines at the time the Spanish arrived here, as there were, let us say, carabaos, or people loved them as much, her name might have more accurately reflected the reality of her historical circumstances. In that sense, at least, Philippines might have been truly horse-loving, or... "phil-ippino!"

A historical analysis may reveal that King Philip of Greek Macedonia, in turn, got his name from a common practice at the time of calling people after a certain human-like attribute, such as, liking horses. This is similar in English to using last names that correspond to certain traditional professions or characteristics, such as, Carpenter or Smith. King Philip of Macedonia was probably equal to his name, since in real life he actually did love horses, especially if they happened to be his own! For example, one of his proudest moments was when he learned that one of his horses won first prize in the Olympic Games (Plutarch, Lives of Noble Greeks, pages 271-272)! Interestingly, Alexander's famous horse, Buccephalus, was originally intended for his father Philip, but only Alexander could tame him, prompting his father to exclaim that Macedonia was way too small for his son.

http://alexandermakedon.com/articles...html#etymology

[Selurong]

We'll the country may be labeled "Philippines" from King Philip. But what about rootword of the term by which Filipinos refer to themselves? Filipino has the Greek "Fili" Fili-i, Filius, meaning son or male descendant.

Freak, its so generic lol.