Take "Australia Day" as an attention getter for your opening
Posted by: Claudia Raab in New Power Words on
Jan 26, 2009
Happy Australia Day to all our clients and readers! While preparing to celebrate Australia Day the Raab & Raab team was wondering where the word "Australia" comes from. Thanks to Celine's fabulous research skills we now know:
The name Australia derives from the Latin "Australis", meaning "Southern". Since Roman times people were telling stories about an unknown land of the South "terra australis incognita".
However, it wasn't before 1625 that the word "Australia" was first used in the English language in "A note of Australia del Espiritu Santo", written by Master Hakluyt and published by Samuel Purchas in Hakluytus Posthumus.
And wikipekia tells us that the name Australia was popularised by the 1814 work "A Voyage to Terra Australis" by the navigator Matthew Flinders, who became the first person known to have circumnavigated the red continent.
If you have to give a presentation in the next couple of days, how about using "Australia", its meaning or even "terra australis incognita" as an idea for your opening? Great for telling a story, for comparing past and present and future, and so on. Now, that's a thought, isn't it? So, once again: Happy Australia Day! Enjoy your presentation!