Africn.adj.

Etymology: < classical Latin Āfricus of or relating to Africa, also as noun (short for ventus Āfricus ) denoting the south-west wind, in post-classical Latin also a native or inhabitant of Africa (8th cent. or earlier) (see African adj.). Compare Italian †africo (a1292 as noun in sense ‘warm wind blowing from North Africa’, a1367 as adjective), Spanish áfrico (a1453). Compare African n. and the foreign-language forms cited at that entry.In Old English attested only in the translation of Orosius Hist., and belonging to the i -stem declension typical for ethnonyms; in some instances difficult to distinguish from forms of the place name Africa (see African n. and adj.), especially as ethnonyms are frequently used in Old English to denote the land occupied by a people (compare quot. eOE³ at sense A.). The word was apparently reborrowed in the 15th cent. In Afric sea (compare quot. 1634 at sense B.) after classical Latin Āfricum mare the sea separating Africa from Sardina and Sicily. Compare also Affricum (in unassimilated form) in the same sense, in the Old English translation of Orosius Hist.:OE tr. Orosius Hist. (Tiber.) (1980) i. i. 21 Be eastan þæm lande [sc. Sicily] is se Wendelsæ, þe man hæt Adriati[c]um, & be suþan þ[e] man hæt Affricum. Some instances of the adjective could alternatively be taken as showing attributive uses of Afric (also Africk , Afrike , Afryke , etc.), obsolete name for Africa (see the etymological note at African n. and adj.).