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Letter: Getting it right on America’s name

Tuesday, May 30, 2006 | 7:22 a.m.

I want to respond to Michael Borresen's May 23 letter - "Spanish language in U.S. is unavoidable" - specifically about the origin of the word America. The explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who was Italian, is where the word originated. He did sail for Spain and Portugal, however the German scholar Martin Waldseemuller drew maps in 1507 based on Vespucci's travels and named the land masses after Vespucci's first name (from the Latinized version of "Amerigo").

So the word America is from an Italian explorer sailing under Spanish and Portuguese flags and a German cartographer. There may be other theories of where the name came from, but this is the most widely accepted.

Richard O'Connell, Henderson

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