Algeria
UK /ælˈdʒɪəɹi.ə/ · US /ælˈdʒɪɹi.ə/ proper noun
- proper noun (historical) Ottoman Algeria, also the regency of Algiers or al-Jazā’ir in Arabic, from 1515 to 1830.
- proper noun (historical) French or Colonial Algeria, from 1830 to 1962.
- proper noun The People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, since 1962.
Synonyms
Etymology
Arabic جَزَائِر بَنِي مَزْغَنَّى (jazāʔir banī mazḡannā)ellip.
From Alger + -ia, modified based on French Algérie, from the French Alger (“Algiers”) + -ie, from Algerian Arabic الدزَاير (ed-dzayer), from Arabic اَلْجَزَائِر (al-jazāʔir, “the islands”) (with elision of the first vowel), plural of جَزِيرَة (jazīra, “island”), referring to the several small islands that once existed in the Bay of Algiers. Doublet of Algiers and Algeciras.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “Algeria”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details