李曉玲

The name “Italy” is extremely old. It seems to have been used first in documents of the 5th century BC. to describe a small territory at the tip of the boot-shaped peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea. Historians used to think that the name came from that of a legendary king， Italo. Many other ingenious and improbable theories have been suggested to explain the origin of the name.

No matter what its origins， the name of that small territory at the tip of the boot spreads， little by little， to indicate the whole peninsula. By about AD 1000 the name designated a region， a dialect， and a culture. But it was not until the mid-19th century that the many separate nations on the peninsula were united into one nation， the nation to which the ancient name “Italy” was given.

“意大利”這一名字極其古老。它最早被用在公元前5世紀(jì)的文件中，指延伸進(jìn)地中海的靴形半島頂端的那一小塊領(lǐng)土。歷史學(xué)家過去一直認(rèn)為它取自一位傳奇國王--意大洛的名字。人們還提出許多有獨(dú)創(chuàng)性但卻不大可能的理論來解釋這一名字的來源。

不論其來源于何處，原來只指靴形半島頂端那一小塊領(lǐng)土的這一名字逐漸擴(kuò)大到泛指整個半島。大約到了公元1000年，它指一個地區(qū)，一種方言，以及一種文化。但是一直到19世紀(jì)中期，該半島上的許多獨(dú)立國家才聯(lián)合成為一個國家，并以“意大利”這一古老的名字命名。