Russia
Meanings
- A transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and North Asia. Official name: Russian Federation. Capital and largest city: Moscow. It borders the Pacific and Arctic Oceans and the Baltic, Black, and Caspian Seas. Part of the Soviet Union from 1917 through 1991.
- The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (a very common name, although more formally Russia, the RSFSR, was one of several constituent republics of the USSR).
- The Russian Empire; the tsarist empire in Russia lasting from 1721 to 1917.
- Kievan Rus; the medieval East Slavic state centered in Kiev.
- Any of several East Slavic states descended from Kievan Rus, typically including Russia (Great Russia), Belarus (White Russia) and Ukraine (Little Russia).
- Ellipsis of Russia leather.
- Russia.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁-der. Proto-Germanic *rōþruz? Old East Norse *rōþs-bor. Proto-Finnic *rooccibor. Old East Slavic Русь (Rusĭ)bor. New Latin Russiabor. English Russia From Medieval Latin Russia, from Old East Slavic Русь (Rusĭ) (whence Arabic رُوس (rūs) and Byzantine Greek Ῥῶς (Rhôs)), which originally referred to a group of Varangians who established themselves near Kiev in the 9th century and ruled Kievan Rus; probably from Proto-Finnic *roocci, from Old East Norse *roþs- (“related to rowing”); related to Old Norse Roþrslandi (“the land of rowing”), an older name of Roslagen, where the Finns first encountered the Swedes. Ultimately from Old Norse róðr (“steering oar”), from Proto-Germanic *rōþrą (“rudder”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁- (“to row”). By surface analysis, Russ + -ia. First attested in c. 1390s. Doublet of Rossiya.