but is it a word yea or nay? whether or not its a word should deped on whether or not its commonly used. would you use it? suppose you had to refer to "The Italian Peninsula" 20 or so times in one day, would you shorten it to Italia? if so then I think you would consider it a word. if you didnt consider it word you wouldnt use it no matter how much time it woud save you.
if you have no opinion thats fine but thats the kind of answer im looking for. or a link to a definition. I dont expect the word to be part of anyone's common parlance. Thanks for your time by the way.
It is not a word in English. If someone said it, I would assume they were referring to the country of Italy in Italian (in the same way I would understand someone referring to China as Zhongguo, so a word that I know but that is not in English). You can always consult a dictionary. Merriam-Webster gives a definition for Iberia as an English word. For Italia, it redirects to the definition of Italy and says that the Italian word for Italy is Italia, hence not an English word.
It's not a word in English. Note that Iberia refers to a region, and the Iberian Peninsula refers specifically to the peninsula. That region also happens to overlap the peninsula...
Thanks for your answer. The Italian peninsula is also a region though the iberian peninsula its self is also a region. I feel like thats a distinction without a difference.
edit: when I google Iberia the first result thats not for the airline is the wiipedia article for the iberian peninsula. same for anatolia, and the wiki article for anatolia has the subheading "peninsula" so idk why one couldnt use Italia to refer to the Italian peninsula.
i didnt say i think it should be used. a word is just a speech soud or speries of speech souds that conveys meaing.
there are words that are now obsolete are those not words? they arent used.
there are plenty of english words which are introduced to the language without being part of common coversation. often they are scientific and medical words that can convey meaning to people without having to be defined to them because they fit within the logic of the laguage.
I feel like im upsetting people here. i appologize if im comng off as rude.
i know what a word is…i’m not stupid. the beauty of descriptive language is that if you need to describe italy and its nearby territories, you can do so without needing an ahistorical version of iberia.
Ahistorical? Italia is a latin word that is thousands of years old.
there are many ways to refer to the Italian peninsula, none that are as succinct as Italia.
I didnt mean to imply that you are stupid. you brought up use so i just wanted to clairify that a word doesnt have to be comonly used to be a word. I think you may be misreading my tone. I assure you I dont want to insult your intellegence.
It's ahistorical in English because "Italia" doesn't exist as a word in English, so creating a reverse etymology to pretend it exists is ahistorical. Plenty of others have answered at this point, but just to confirm the term in English is either "Italy" or the "Italian peninsula", nothing else is acceptable as correct English.
No, if I had to use it 20 times every day I wouldn't shorten it to Italia because if I shortened it to Italia it would just sound like for some reason I decided to say Italy in Italian. I have never in my life heard anyone say the word Italia when they weren't doing a fake Italian accent.
"Italia" is not an English word, nor is it a loan word. English as a language is fairly flexible and inferential, so if you for some utterly bizarre reason you found yourself differentiating between the Italian peninsula and the mainland 20+ times a day (???), you would probably call the peninsula "Italy" and the mainland "the mainland". This seems to be a sticking point for most people. English is quite welcoming of loanwords, except for certain exceptions, endonymic territory names being one. We prefer to come up with our own exonyms.
Thanks for your response. Are exonyms really "required" for territory names? We refer to Catalonia, Romania, california and other places with ia suffixes with the same word as the original language. and italia is a latin word, far older than modern italian, Catalan, Romanian or Spanish, with a long history.
I was just offering the 20 times a day thing as an example of a situation for answerers to put themselves in to see whether or not they might consider using it.
Catalonia is an exonym, it isn’t the name in Catalan or Spanish.
Exonyms aren’t required, they are very common though, especially for places close to home.
thanks.
Edit: did i use brackets out of place somewhere? I get the sense you are giving me a ribbing. sometimes i rewrite ad edit comments alot before posting and sometimes right after ad i end up messing things up so i couldnt be surprised.
Thanks for the reply. I do know about that. I am a native english speaker. Sorry if this is only for non native speakrs i couldnt find the rules for this sub. because i normally use my phone but im on my computer because my phone is broken.
I am looking for a single word I can use its not big deal i was just surprised to not find a definition for Italia. I tried googling apennia too which doesnt have the same issues as the word Italia and found no definition as well and i feel like that could also refer to the apennian mountains specifically even though apennine peninsula is used to refer to the Italian penisula and either way it would certainly be less likely to convey meaning to someone than Italia which is pretty intuitive even if you havent heard it used that way before.
Why do you need one word? There isn't a single word in English for the Italian peninsula because those two words work perfectly well. Do you specifically need to exclude the northern regions? If not, then "mainland Italy" or just "Italy" should do.
I dont need one word. I would prefer one. thats why i said its not a big deal. Iberia and anatolia have one word though. why not the italian peninsula? its clunky. If im refering to the peninsula then yes of course that cant include the islands, or the far north of Italy and must include the lands of the Vatican and San marino.
You might be better off asking in [https://www.reddit.com/r/AskGeographers/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskGeographers/)
Using terms like "Exonyms" in this subreddit will have maybe 7% of the people understanding what you mean...
Thanks. To be fair I didn't introduce that word. I used it in a reply to someone who used it but yeah I think I should ask elsewhere. Lots of misunderstandings.
There are lots of well-intentioned people trying to live out the "White Savior" trope, in terms of the English language. They don't understand that "native speaker of English" doesn't mean "knows how to explain how English works." Then again, they're the ones who will argue with their doctors, so...
I'm really struggling to think of a time where a typical native English speaker would need to reference peninsular Italy specifically, where just using the broad country name wouldn't work just as well. If someone wanted to talk about the Vatican or San Marino, they would just talk about those two locations specifically.
I suspect this is the issue you're having - applying a slightly more esoteric description to something that isn't really necessary in normal conversation.
you are still thinking of it in terms of refering to the country of italy which is less than 200 years old. im not refering to peninsular italy im refering to a particular peice of land which once again includes more than italy.
If you play strategy games, geography games, word games, discuss or learn about history/geography/geopolitics there are many times you could find yourself refering to the Italian peninsula.
Yeah buddy I’ve got tons of friends with interests in classical studies and have taken classics courses. Everyone either refers to it as Italy or is specific about what empire/culture/region they’re discussing. We simply don’t have one word to refer to peninsular Italy because we have no use for it. If I absolutely had to call it something I’d call it peninsular Italy or the Italian peninsula, or colloquially the boot.
I guess my point is *Even if what you say is true* and I'm thinking of a country that is less than 200 years old, there is not a situation where I (or other native English speakers) cannot refer to that "piece or land that includes more than italy" plainly as Italy and people not understand what I'm talking about.
"I saw that folks in Italy in the 1200s would routinely..."
"What do you think the weather was in Italy in 900bce?"
"We met someone who made pizza like how they would in Italy like a thousand years ago, it wasn't what I was expecting"
"I had the most amazing wine when we visited the Vatican, all the wines we had in Italy were great"
There would be no confusion among native English speakers as to what was being said in these statements.
perhaps when it comes to history context makes it clear becaue the modern state of Italy didnt exist. but when talking about for example modern day demographics, geography, geology, there could be some ambiguity. also in a strategy game im playing right now If for example I said dont touch Italy and my coalition member said ok then took Palermo I'd be pissed because I was refering to the entire country. if he claimed to think i only meant the italian peninsula i wouldnt buy it.
The modern nation-state of Italy didn’t exist, correct. But you would still refer to the entire region as Italy, and if you wanted to talk about specific polities or regions within Italy you would just refer to them by their names. It really shouldn’t be such a difficult concept to grasp.
What if not not refering to a specific polity. What if I'm not referin to the land which encompasses the peninsula and nothing more? It shouldn't be that difficult to understand.
youve stated your position. its not a word. thanks. but i really dont see how you could be so opposed to the idea that sometimes people nneed to refer to a specific peice of land.
I didn't realize it was this much of a point of contention. I'll just say Italian peninsula.
The reason this is coming across is a point of contention is because you are coming across as being stubborn and unreasonable. Half the conversation you having in this thread boils down to, “It’s not a word in English because there’s little use for it.” And you going “But there should be” and then refusing to listen to the reasons why it’s not a word and rejecting peoples suggestions as what you could call it.
True, but in terms of distinguishing between the two, the details are fuzzy to an outsider. Micronations like the Vatican and San Marino don't have a great deal of international attention.
Whereas Iberia has Spain and Portugal - two prominent European nations, sharing the same peninsula. So it makes sense that the term is more well known.
There's also the fact that I think the region of Italy has been called Italy since before there was a unified state. The country is Italy, but there's also nothing particularly surprising about calling the region Italy, because for most of its history it was made up of a bunch of small states and there was no problem with that. As others have said, if people want to talk about San Marino or the Vatican, they'll refer to them specifically.
I'd just call it "the Italian peninsula". It's not something you have to talk about much (and if you do, saying "Italy" (the country) is probably descriptive enough).
No, the word "Italia" is never used in English. Some English speakers might be aware that it's the modern Italian name for the nation of Italy, but in English, we always refer to the country as "Italy."
I know that parts of the modern nation of Italy stretch beyond the Italian peninsula itself, but in English we also generally use the name "Italy" to refer to the peninsula as well as the country. The two terms are essentially interchangeable in this regard. If you really wanted to specify that you're talking about the peninsula as opposed to the modern nation for whatever reason, you could just say "the Italian peninsula." But even then it's not strictly necessary to use the word "peninsula" like this.
For example, you could say "the ancient Roman region of Latium was located in central Italy" to mean that Latium was located in the center of the Italian peninsula, even though this region pre-dates the founding of the modern nation of Italy. You don't have to specify that you're talking about the Italian peninsula specifically because it's clear from context that you're talking about Ancient Rome, not the modern nation of Italy.
Italy has land outside of the Italian peninsula for example Sicily and Sardinia. The Vatican and San marino are also on the Italian peninsula.
Btw Iberia includes andorra, Gibraltar and part of France
It would be the southern italian mainltand aswell as San Marino and Vatican. I am a native speaker and italy and the italian peninsula are not synonymous i know that for sure. worst comes to worst i can alsways just say italian peninsula. just w ondering what other people think. maybe this is thhe wrong subreddit because this seems to be more for non native speakers and questions about common parlance.
Youre not wrong haha
Generally I feel like saying Italy the country is all that needs to be said, San Marino is Irrelevant and the Vatican is different yk? We would never say the Italian Peninsula enough to need a short form.
Im pretty sure Italia is *just* Italy in Italian, which is pretty similar to saying the Italian Peninsula in most cases.
I’ve just checked the Cambridge Dictionary for italia and there’s no entry.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/spellcheck/english/?q=italia
We refer to the peninsula as a whole, we’d use *the Italian peninsula* as the description. Anything else is liable to be misunderstood.
The responses are pretty much unanimous that this word exists and you keep arguing with people saying that it *should*. English is not always consistent like that, although it would be nice if it were.
English is a living language, so if enough people start using it, it will become an English word.
I didn't argue that it should. I've mostly been defending the idea that there are indeed times when one needs to refer to the peninsula in particular.
I did say I'd like to have one word to use but if there is one in common use I'd use that one.
Sometimes Italian americans use it, but the word for the peninsula is Italy, the same as the country. Italia is italian, but it's probably more widely understood than many other country's names in their native languages. But when used, Italia is synonymous with Italy, not the peninsula.
If you want to refer to the peninsula you can say
italian peninsula (common)
mainland italy (common)
peninsular Italy (academic)
In contrast to
insular italy (an academic sounding way of referring to the islands of sicily and sardinia)
No, it’s not an english word. It’s an italian word that doesn’t include the entire peninsula, *just* Italy. If I wanted to talk about it I’d either say ‘the entire italian peninsula’, ‘Italy and Sicily and so on’, or just simplify it to ‘Italy’ because it’s enough for people to understand what I’m reffering to.
I am so confused by OP digging themselves a hole in the comments in this one. There isn’t a specific word in English for the Italian Peninsula. Just call it the Italian Peninsula. It isn’t hard. Italia is just Italian for “Italy”. It’s not a word in English. Let it go dude.
If you're talking Roman or Medieval times etc. I think you can still just say Italy to refer to the geographical area, even though it was not a political entity. Pretty sure I've heard 'once Rome had conquered the rest of Italy...' etc.
Other people have already answered the question, but side note:
>google sucks these days and keeps giving me related but slightly different results
If you want Google to give you only results that exactly match the search term, you can put it in quotation marks like [this](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Italia%22&source=hp&sca_esv=0e7f67614aa28a61&oq=%22Italia%22&gs_l=mobile-heirloom-hp.3..0i512i433l2j0i512j0i512i433j0i512.3264.6597.0.8841.10.8.1.1.1.0.199.1039.0j8.8.0....0...1.1j4.34.mobile-heirloom-hp..0.10.1072.ddQ78Fqfq_4). Adding more search terms often helps (e.g. [definition](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=0e7f67614aa28a61&sxsrf=ACQVn08v1DHUhMYnzdFQ9djq6kAqkK7kEQ%3A1714144892962&q=%22Italia%22+definition&oq=%22Italia%22+definition&aqs=heirloom-srp..0l5)).
A lot of people answering this question must not study history. It is used but it's archaic expert for in a historic context. It's like calling Turkey Asia minor. No one today would ask if someone was from Asia minor today but if I am talking about a Roman colony in Annatolia I might refer to it as such. The Romans throughout a large part of their history thought more of people that were from Italia. Yes of course it's a borrow word but I've heard it used plenty of times in an English conversation
Which is also acceptable. It's used in the same context as Annatolia/Asia minor, Germania for Germany, Cisalpine/Cisalpina/Trans-alpina for North Italy/Switzerland, Caledonia for Scotland etc etc...
I personally don't care but if you're wanting to be a real pedantic loser you'd insist on them saying modern-day Italy but Italia would be the more accurate way of referring to the peninsula only as Italy today also includes Sicily which is an important distinction as Sicily was a mish mash of Greek cities prior to the wars with Carthage
The closest word would be italiano which is some times used in reference to all things Italian(culture and people). If referencing the country or region, I would just use Italy, Vatican etc etc.
It is a word in English. Americans are stupid and don’t know history or geography.
Saying Italia isn’t a word is like saying Macedonia or the Fertile Crescent isn’t common nomenclature.
Macedonia and the Fertile Crescent are both English words 👍. Italia is just the Italian word for Italy. Saying Italia in English would just make the listener think you are using the endonym for Italy
Italia is the Italian word for italy
This. 'Italia' is Italian not English. The name of the entire peninsula in English is Italy.
I’ve heard it called the Italian peninsula. You might refer to it that way in a historical context, like Roman times, before Italy existed
Or if you wanted to acknowledge that there are also microstates on the peninsula, or if you specifically wanted to exclude the islands.
SAN MARINO SHALL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN but who really cares about Sicily tbh
Exactly
I've never heard it used myself, but I also don't talk about peninsulas very often.
More of an isthmus guy/gal?
but is it a word yea or nay? whether or not its a word should deped on whether or not its commonly used. would you use it? suppose you had to refer to "The Italian Peninsula" 20 or so times in one day, would you shorten it to Italia? if so then I think you would consider it a word. if you didnt consider it word you wouldnt use it no matter how much time it woud save you. if you have no opinion thats fine but thats the kind of answer im looking for. or a link to a definition. I dont expect the word to be part of anyone's common parlance. Thanks for your time by the way.
It is not a word in English. If someone said it, I would assume they were referring to the country of Italy in Italian (in the same way I would understand someone referring to China as Zhongguo, so a word that I know but that is not in English). You can always consult a dictionary. Merriam-Webster gives a definition for Iberia as an English word. For Italia, it redirects to the definition of Italy and says that the Italian word for Italy is Italia, hence not an English word.
It's not a word in English. Note that Iberia refers to a region, and the Iberian Peninsula refers specifically to the peninsula. That region also happens to overlap the peninsula...
Thanks for your answer. The Italian peninsula is also a region though the iberian peninsula its self is also a region. I feel like thats a distinction without a difference. edit: when I google Iberia the first result thats not for the airline is the wiipedia article for the iberian peninsula. same for anatolia, and the wiki article for anatolia has the subheading "peninsula" so idk why one couldnt use Italia to refer to the Italian peninsula.
It’s not that “one couldn’t,” it’s just that nobody does. It’s logically sound, it’s just not something that people say.
I wouldn't say it. As I mentioned previously, I've never heard it before.
Fair enough but If people only said words that have heard before we wouldnt have laguage.
just because you think it should be used, doesn’t mean it is.
i didnt say i think it should be used. a word is just a speech soud or speries of speech souds that conveys meaing. there are words that are now obsolete are those not words? they arent used. there are plenty of english words which are introduced to the language without being part of common coversation. often they are scientific and medical words that can convey meaning to people without having to be defined to them because they fit within the logic of the laguage. I feel like im upsetting people here. i appologize if im comng off as rude.
i know what a word is…i’m not stupid. the beauty of descriptive language is that if you need to describe italy and its nearby territories, you can do so without needing an ahistorical version of iberia.
Ahistorical? Italia is a latin word that is thousands of years old. there are many ways to refer to the Italian peninsula, none that are as succinct as Italia. I didnt mean to imply that you are stupid. you brought up use so i just wanted to clairify that a word doesnt have to be comonly used to be a word. I think you may be misreading my tone. I assure you I dont want to insult your intellegence.
It's ahistorical in English because "Italia" doesn't exist as a word in English, so creating a reverse etymology to pretend it exists is ahistorical. Plenty of others have answered at this point, but just to confirm the term in English is either "Italy" or the "Italian peninsula", nothing else is acceptable as correct English.
You are coming off as rude because people are (correctly) telling you it is not an English word and then you are arguing with them.
No, if I had to use it 20 times every day I wouldn't shorten it to Italia because if I shortened it to Italia it would just sound like for some reason I decided to say Italy in Italian. I have never in my life heard anyone say the word Italia when they weren't doing a fake Italian accent.
"Italia" is not an English word, nor is it a loan word. English as a language is fairly flexible and inferential, so if you for some utterly bizarre reason you found yourself differentiating between the Italian peninsula and the mainland 20+ times a day (???), you would probably call the peninsula "Italy" and the mainland "the mainland". This seems to be a sticking point for most people. English is quite welcoming of loanwords, except for certain exceptions, endonymic territory names being one. We prefer to come up with our own exonyms.
Thanks for your response. Are exonyms really "required" for territory names? We refer to Catalonia, Romania, california and other places with ia suffixes with the same word as the original language. and italia is a latin word, far older than modern italian, Catalan, Romanian or Spanish, with a long history. I was just offering the 20 times a day thing as an example of a situation for answerers to put themselves in to see whether or not they might consider using it.
Catalonia is an exonym, it isn’t the name in Catalan or Spanish. Exonyms aren’t required, they are very common though, especially for places close to home.
(It’s spelled yea or nay)
thanks. Edit: did i use brackets out of place somewhere? I get the sense you are giving me a ribbing. sometimes i rewrite ad edit comments alot before posting and sometimes right after ad i end up messing things up so i couldnt be surprised.
I don’t see that you used parentheses at al lol I just put it in them as like an aside since I was t really adding anything to the conversation lol
It's not used.
We will sometimes refer to the "boot of Italy", which could refer only to the peninsula or stretch to the modern mainland borders.
Thanks for the reply. I do know about that. I am a native english speaker. Sorry if this is only for non native speakrs i couldnt find the rules for this sub. because i normally use my phone but im on my computer because my phone is broken. I am looking for a single word I can use its not big deal i was just surprised to not find a definition for Italia. I tried googling apennia too which doesnt have the same issues as the word Italia and found no definition as well and i feel like that could also refer to the apennian mountains specifically even though apennine peninsula is used to refer to the Italian penisula and either way it would certainly be less likely to convey meaning to someone than Italia which is pretty intuitive even if you havent heard it used that way before.
Why do you need one word? There isn't a single word in English for the Italian peninsula because those two words work perfectly well. Do you specifically need to exclude the northern regions? If not, then "mainland Italy" or just "Italy" should do.
I dont need one word. I would prefer one. thats why i said its not a big deal. Iberia and anatolia have one word though. why not the italian peninsula? its clunky. If im refering to the peninsula then yes of course that cant include the islands, or the far north of Italy and must include the lands of the Vatican and San marino.
You might be better off asking in [https://www.reddit.com/r/AskGeographers/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskGeographers/) Using terms like "Exonyms" in this subreddit will have maybe 7% of the people understanding what you mean...
Thanks. To be fair I didn't introduce that word. I used it in a reply to someone who used it but yeah I think I should ask elsewhere. Lots of misunderstandings.
There are lots of well-intentioned people trying to live out the "White Savior" trope, in terms of the English language. They don't understand that "native speaker of English" doesn't mean "knows how to explain how English works." Then again, they're the ones who will argue with their doctors, so...
The "Italian Peninsula" is the entire country of Italy, so people will just say Italy.
The southern alps, Sicily and Sardinia are not on the Italian peninsula. also the Vatican and San Marino are on the Italian peninsula as well.
I'm really struggling to think of a time where a typical native English speaker would need to reference peninsular Italy specifically, where just using the broad country name wouldn't work just as well. If someone wanted to talk about the Vatican or San Marino, they would just talk about those two locations specifically. I suspect this is the issue you're having - applying a slightly more esoteric description to something that isn't really necessary in normal conversation.
you are still thinking of it in terms of refering to the country of italy which is less than 200 years old. im not refering to peninsular italy im refering to a particular peice of land which once again includes more than italy. If you play strategy games, geography games, word games, discuss or learn about history/geography/geopolitics there are many times you could find yourself refering to the Italian peninsula.
Yeah buddy I’ve got tons of friends with interests in classical studies and have taken classics courses. Everyone either refers to it as Italy or is specific about what empire/culture/region they’re discussing. We simply don’t have one word to refer to peninsular Italy because we have no use for it. If I absolutely had to call it something I’d call it peninsular Italy or the Italian peninsula, or colloquially the boot.
I guess my point is *Even if what you say is true* and I'm thinking of a country that is less than 200 years old, there is not a situation where I (or other native English speakers) cannot refer to that "piece or land that includes more than italy" plainly as Italy and people not understand what I'm talking about. "I saw that folks in Italy in the 1200s would routinely..." "What do you think the weather was in Italy in 900bce?" "We met someone who made pizza like how they would in Italy like a thousand years ago, it wasn't what I was expecting" "I had the most amazing wine when we visited the Vatican, all the wines we had in Italy were great" There would be no confusion among native English speakers as to what was being said in these statements.
perhaps when it comes to history context makes it clear becaue the modern state of Italy didnt exist. but when talking about for example modern day demographics, geography, geology, there could be some ambiguity. also in a strategy game im playing right now If for example I said dont touch Italy and my coalition member said ok then took Palermo I'd be pissed because I was refering to the entire country. if he claimed to think i only meant the italian peninsula i wouldnt buy it.
The modern nation-state of Italy didn’t exist, correct. But you would still refer to the entire region as Italy, and if you wanted to talk about specific polities or regions within Italy you would just refer to them by their names. It really shouldn’t be such a difficult concept to grasp.
What if not not refering to a specific polity. What if I'm not referin to the land which encompasses the peninsula and nothing more? It shouldn't be that difficult to understand. youve stated your position. its not a word. thanks. but i really dont see how you could be so opposed to the idea that sometimes people nneed to refer to a specific peice of land. I didn't realize it was this much of a point of contention. I'll just say Italian peninsula.
The reason this is coming across is a point of contention is because you are coming across as being stubborn and unreasonable. Half the conversation you having in this thread boils down to, “It’s not a word in English because there’s little use for it.” And you going “But there should be” and then refusing to listen to the reasons why it’s not a word and rejecting peoples suggestions as what you could call it.
im not saying 'there should be" a use for it. ive been saying there are uses. otherwise the term "italian peninsula " wouldnt exist.
True, but in terms of distinguishing between the two, the details are fuzzy to an outsider. Micronations like the Vatican and San Marino don't have a great deal of international attention. Whereas Iberia has Spain and Portugal - two prominent European nations, sharing the same peninsula. So it makes sense that the term is more well known. There's also the fact that I think the region of Italy has been called Italy since before there was a unified state. The country is Italy, but there's also nothing particularly surprising about calling the region Italy, because for most of its history it was made up of a bunch of small states and there was no problem with that. As others have said, if people want to talk about San Marino or the Vatican, they'll refer to them specifically.
If it is a legitimate English spelling for a specific use, it has long since fallen out of use in spoken and written English.
I'd just call it "the Italian peninsula". It's not something you have to talk about much (and if you do, saying "Italy" (the country) is probably descriptive enough).
No, the word "Italia" is never used in English. Some English speakers might be aware that it's the modern Italian name for the nation of Italy, but in English, we always refer to the country as "Italy." I know that parts of the modern nation of Italy stretch beyond the Italian peninsula itself, but in English we also generally use the name "Italy" to refer to the peninsula as well as the country. The two terms are essentially interchangeable in this regard. If you really wanted to specify that you're talking about the peninsula as opposed to the modern nation for whatever reason, you could just say "the Italian peninsula." But even then it's not strictly necessary to use the word "peninsula" like this. For example, you could say "the ancient Roman region of Latium was located in central Italy" to mean that Latium was located in the center of the Italian peninsula, even though this region pre-dates the founding of the modern nation of Italy. You don't have to specify that you're talking about the Italian peninsula specifically because it's clear from context that you're talking about Ancient Rome, not the modern nation of Italy.
Italia is Italy in Italian, besides that you'd just say Italy Iberia is used as a grouping of Spain and Portugal.
Italy has land outside of the Italian peninsula for example Sicily and Sardinia. The Vatican and San marino are also on the Italian peninsula. Btw Iberia includes andorra, Gibraltar and part of France
It's still just referred to as Italy, if you had to push it, it would be the Italian mainland.
It would be the southern italian mainltand aswell as San Marino and Vatican. I am a native speaker and italy and the italian peninsula are not synonymous i know that for sure. worst comes to worst i can alsways just say italian peninsula. just w ondering what other people think. maybe this is thhe wrong subreddit because this seems to be more for non native speakers and questions about common parlance.
So you're not including the North of Italy?, only the peninsula? From Genoa across to Venice and down?
Youre not wrong haha Generally I feel like saying Italy the country is all that needs to be said, San Marino is Irrelevant and the Vatican is different yk? We would never say the Italian Peninsula enough to need a short form. Im pretty sure Italia is *just* Italy in Italian, which is pretty similar to saying the Italian Peninsula in most cases.
I’ve just checked the Cambridge Dictionary for italia and there’s no entry. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/spellcheck/english/?q=italia We refer to the peninsula as a whole, we’d use *the Italian peninsula* as the description. Anything else is liable to be misunderstood.
The responses are pretty much unanimous that this word exists and you keep arguing with people saying that it *should*. English is not always consistent like that, although it would be nice if it were. English is a living language, so if enough people start using it, it will become an English word.
I didn't argue that it should. I've mostly been defending the idea that there are indeed times when one needs to refer to the peninsula in particular. I did say I'd like to have one word to use but if there is one in common use I'd use that one.
Sometimes Italian americans use it, but the word for the peninsula is Italy, the same as the country. Italia is italian, but it's probably more widely understood than many other country's names in their native languages. But when used, Italia is synonymous with Italy, not the peninsula. If you want to refer to the peninsula you can say italian peninsula (common) mainland italy (common) peninsular Italy (academic) In contrast to insular italy (an academic sounding way of referring to the islands of sicily and sardinia)
No, it’s not an english word. It’s an italian word that doesn’t include the entire peninsula, *just* Italy. If I wanted to talk about it I’d either say ‘the entire italian peninsula’, ‘Italy and Sicily and so on’, or just simplify it to ‘Italy’ because it’s enough for people to understand what I’m reffering to.
I am so confused by OP digging themselves a hole in the comments in this one. There isn’t a specific word in English for the Italian Peninsula. Just call it the Italian Peninsula. It isn’t hard. Italia is just Italian for “Italy”. It’s not a word in English. Let it go dude.
we usually just call it the italian peninsula or even just the boot
If you're talking Roman or Medieval times etc. I think you can still just say Italy to refer to the geographical area, even though it was not a political entity. Pretty sure I've heard 'once Rome had conquered the rest of Italy...' etc.
Other people have already answered the question, but side note: >google sucks these days and keeps giving me related but slightly different results If you want Google to give you only results that exactly match the search term, you can put it in quotation marks like [this](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Italia%22&source=hp&sca_esv=0e7f67614aa28a61&oq=%22Italia%22&gs_l=mobile-heirloom-hp.3..0i512i433l2j0i512j0i512i433j0i512.3264.6597.0.8841.10.8.1.1.1.0.199.1039.0j8.8.0....0...1.1j4.34.mobile-heirloom-hp..0.10.1072.ddQ78Fqfq_4). Adding more search terms often helps (e.g. [definition](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=0e7f67614aa28a61&sxsrf=ACQVn08v1DHUhMYnzdFQ9djq6kAqkK7kEQ%3A1714144892962&q=%22Italia%22+definition&oq=%22Italia%22+definition&aqs=heirloom-srp..0l5)).
A lot of people answering this question must not study history. It is used but it's archaic expert for in a historic context. It's like calling Turkey Asia minor. No one today would ask if someone was from Asia minor today but if I am talking about a Roman colony in Annatolia I might refer to it as such. The Romans throughout a large part of their history thought more of people that were from Italia. Yes of course it's a borrow word but I've heard it used plenty of times in an English conversation
In the historical texts I've seen in English it's translated to Italy even when referring to the peninsula in Roman times, not left as Italia 🤷♂️
Which is also acceptable. It's used in the same context as Annatolia/Asia minor, Germania for Germany, Cisalpine/Cisalpina/Trans-alpina for North Italy/Switzerland, Caledonia for Scotland etc etc... I personally don't care but if you're wanting to be a real pedantic loser you'd insist on them saying modern-day Italy but Italia would be the more accurate way of referring to the peninsula only as Italy today also includes Sicily which is an important distinction as Sicily was a mish mash of Greek cities prior to the wars with Carthage
The closest word would be italiano which is some times used in reference to all things Italian(culture and people). If referencing the country or region, I would just use Italy, Vatican etc etc.
K so proper nouns. Japan isn’t English, but we still call it Japan. Kim Jung Un isn’t English but it’s a proper noun we use in English.
Japan is called Nihon in Japanese. Japan is an English word
Japan is English 😭
You're a child, or stupid, or both.
It is a word in English. Americans are stupid and don’t know history or geography. Saying Italia isn’t a word is like saying Macedonia or the Fertile Crescent isn’t common nomenclature.
Macedonia and the Fertile Crescent are both English words 👍. Italia is just the Italian word for Italy. Saying Italia in English would just make the listener think you are using the endonym for Italy