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Austria

aust·ria

UK/ˈɒstɹiə/ US/ˈɔːstɹiə/ fairly common

noun

1.

a mountainous republic in central Europe; under the Habsburgs (1278-1918) Austria maintained control of the Holy Roman Empire and was a leader in European politics until the 19th century

Origin

From Latin Austria, a Latinization of Old High German Ōstarrīhhi, the first element of which means "east" and stems from Proto-Germanic *austraz (“eastern”), and the second element of which is rīhhi (“realm”). See east, eastern for more. Distantly cognate to Australia: it derives from the same Proto-Indo-European root, but via Latin, where it came to mean “south” rather than “east”. Compare also Austrasia.

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.