What is the origin of the noun Africa?

Answer 1

The origin of the word Africa came from the Romans, who named the area of modern-day North Africa in honor of the victories of Scipio Africanus Major in the Second Punic War versus Carthage and Hannibal. It was later referred to by Europeans as the entire African continent.

While the Oxford English Dictionary confesses that the origin of the word is uncertain, it seems that it may have developed while Phoenician mariners sailed off the north coast of the continent and remarked the seemingly unending expanse of sandy desert that lay just 500 to 1000 m from the shore in many places. Those observations may have had the Phoenician words AFAR, meaning "Dust" and RAYK, meaning "empty," tied to them in a synechdoche (description of a thing by one or more of its characteristics or traits; thus, the word AFAR-RAYK-A (perhaps a Latinized ending added later) or Africa. The Phoenicians established outposts in what is now Tunisia (formerly Carthage), where the inhabitants spoke the Punic language, a derivative of Phoenician.

Answer 2

The noun Africa came into Western use through the Romans, who used the term "Africa terra" for "land of the Afri" (singular: Afer) for the northern part of the continent. The origin of Afer could come from many possible sources, including the Phoenician 'afar; the Afri, a Berber tribe; the Greek word aprhike, meaning "without cold"; or the Latin word aprika, meaning "sunny."

Answer 3

Directly quoted from the Wikipedia article on the continent..."...Africa's name is derived from an ancient area in modern day Tunisia known as Ifriqiya or sunny place..."

Answer 4

From the Dutch "Afrikanner"