Fiji
/ˈfiːdʒiː/ proper noun
Forms Viti Feejee Fejee Feegee
- proper noun A country and archipelago of over 300 islands in Melanesia in Oceania. Capital and largest city: Suva.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from Tongan Fisi (historically pronounced with a palatal affricate, IPA⁽ᵏᵉʸ⁾: [ˈfit͡ʃi]), itself borrowed from Fijian Viti, from Proto‐Central Pacific *viti ‘east, sunrise’. The English spelling ‘Fiji’ was popularized by Captain James Cook’s phonetic transcription of the 18th‐century Tongan pronunciation.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “Fiji”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details