# Latin America etymology

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-america-etymology/220110>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 20, 2003, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-america-etymology/220110 "2003-12-20T03:19:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Termital](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Termital](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Termital)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-america-etymology/220110/1 "2003-12-20T03:19:59Z")

</div>

Why’s Latin America named so? I mean, it isn’t like it was a roman colony or anything…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chavardz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/91b2a8/32.png) [@Chavardz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chavardz)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-america-etymology/220110/2 "2003-12-20T03:26:29Z")

</div>

Because we speak the so-called romantic tongues. That is to say languages descended form the romans and greeks. Spanish French and Portuguese are spoken throught.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-america-etymology/220110/3 "2003-12-20T03:44:07Z")

</div>

I agree with **Chavardz** , but also [this site](http://www.samuseum.org/collections/laac/laac.html) claims the term came out of the context of French foreign policy in the 1850s. It makes sense that there were seen to be two Americas – one primarily English and English-speaking, the other colonised by Spain and Portugal and therefore “Latin”.