Theory about the name Rus is not so strong, but it is maybe true. Similar names can be found all over the Slavic world. For example, one of the Serbian medieval countries had name Raška (Rashka) with city Ras in it.
Doesnt seem weak to me etymology of "russia" . If you can find a better argumented alternative etymology I would love to see it (no sarcasm, we need all the info to come to the best possible conclusion, right.)
Polynesian languages have very few consonants so the foreign ones get substituted for something familiar. Also they usually can't have consonant clusters and words use a consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel pattern like in Japanese, so vowel sounds get inserted between and after consonants in loan words. Merry Christmas in Hawaiian comes out as Mele Kalikimaka. I don't know much about Gilbertese but it looks like it may be similar.
I guess from the words ¨baja¨ and ¨mar¨... Also ¨bajamar¨ means low tide, maybe related to how low the islands are in general, that you can see them only when low tide.
Pretty sure mas in bahamas does not come from more... mar is sea in spanish and mares is the plural. Most likely mares became contracted (or whatever the english term/description for this process is) to ma's
Note sure that's correct. The spelling 'Liecht' does not occur in modern or medieval German. It could mean 'bright', or 'shining', but also 'of little weight'.
For the clue about elephant tusks, I swear all I could think of was Tuscany (yes, I know that Tuscany is not a country), and it was so funny to me that I couldn't think of the (obvious) correct answer.
While Pakistan may coincidently mean Land of the Pure in a mixture of languages, this is an etymology quiz. The real origin of the name (Pakstan with the i added later to help pronunciation) was as an acronym for Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Sindh, and BaluchisTAN. This is the true etymology of the name.
if i had a nickel for every time there was a country named after lions that doesnt have any lions in it, id only have 2 but its weird that it happened twice
As a Sri Lankan, Sri Lanka definitely does not mean holy island in sanskrit. The Sri part is a sanskrit honorific but the Lanka part is derived from E'lu, the precursor to the local language sinhala in which 'Lankawa' which means island.
You could say the Sri part is sanskrit, but the Lanka part is not so it creates confusion.
It would be better to give a clue like "Which country's name in Persian was used as the base for the word serendipity?"
"Silvery" would commonly be translated as "plateado/a". However, it can also be translated as "argénteo/a". "Argentino/a" is an old version of the same that isn't used anymore, probably so as to not get it confused with the country.
If you want a long(er) read look here
For example, the "ti" in Kiribati is pronunced as "s": "Christmas" turns into "Kiritimati".
so its means something like more low / lower
It's an acronym and it has the meaning this quiz says it has.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/argentina#Spanish
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/antigua
https://translate.google.com/?sl=es&tl=en&text=antigua&op=translate
"viejo" is usually used for old, like old man, etc
low sea = mar bajo
what country sounds like mar bajo?
but then i realised it was flipped lol
You could say the Sri part is sanskrit, but the Lanka part is not so it creates confusion.
It would be better to give a clue like "Which country's name in Persian was used as the base for the word serendipity?"
Maurice --> Maurits
A caveat about English names could be helpful for countries like Germany, where the English name is very different from the German name.
I made a sequel if you'd like to add it to this series!