What does Terra Australis Nondum cognita mean?
the southern land not yet
Other names for the hypothetical continent have included Terra Australis Ignota, Terra Australis Incognit’ (“the unknown land of the south”) or Terra Australis Nondum Cognita (“the southern land not yet known”). Other names were Brasiliae Australis (“the southern Brazil”), and Magellanica (“the land of Magellan”).
Why was Australia called Terra Australis Incognita in the 1500s?
For many centuries Europeans believed there must be a vast land in the southern hemisphere, variously called ‘Terra Australis Incognita’ or ‘Unknown South Land’. With south at the top of the map a small wind head map names the imagined southern land mass ‘Australia’. …
Is Terra Australis Incognita Australia?
Although Indigenous Australians had lived here for thousands of years, for the Europeans it was ‘Terra Australis Incognita’, the great unknown land. Early maps of the world showed a single land mass at the bottom of the world to balance, as one would with a set of scales, the land masses of the northern hemisphere.
What language is Terra Australis Incognita?
Latin
Early 17th century Latin, ‘unknown southern land’.
What was Australia called before Terra Australis?
New Holland
Change of name After British colonisation, the name New Holland was retained for several decades and the south polar continent continued to be called Terra Australis, sometimes shortened to Australia.
Who named Australia Terra Australis?
Captain Matthew Flinders
Australia was originally named Foundation Day or Anniversary Day, after Captain Matthew Flinders named it Terra Australis while he was imprisoned on his journey home on December 17, 1803 until June 1810, seven years on the French island of Mauritius.
What is Terra Australis kids?
Terra Australis (Latin for South Land) is a hypothetical continent first posited in antiquity and which appeared on maps between the 15th and 18th centuries. This theory of balancing land has been documented as early as the 5th century on maps by Macrobius, who uses the term Australis on his maps.
Is Antarctica Terra Australis?
Antarctica. Antarctica was finally sighted in the hypothetical area of Terra Australis in 1820. The extent of Terra Australis was finally determined, also proving the Southern Hemisphere has much less land than the Northern.