Editing Spain (section)

== Etymology <!-- Linked --> ==
The name of Spain ({{lang|es|España}}) comes from {{lang|la|[[Hispania]]}}, the name used by the Romans for the [[Iberian Peninsula]] and its provinces during the [[Roman Empire]]. The etymology of the term {{lang|la|Hispania}} is uncertain, although the Phoenicians referred to the region as {{tlit|phn|i-shphan-im}}, possibly meaning "land of rabbits", "land of metals",<ref name="Arechaga2009">{{cite journal |last1=Arechaga |first1=Juan |title=Science in Hispania: Spain and Portugal on the main route again |journal=The International Journal of Developmental Biology |date=2009 |volume=53 |issue=8–10 |pages=1119–1122 |doi=10.1387/ijdb.093019ja|pmid=19924620 }}</ref> or "northern island".<ref>{{cite book | last=Dietler | first=Michael | last2=López-Ruiz | first2=Carolina | title=Colonial Encounters in Ancient Iberia | publisher=University of Chicago Press | year=2009 | isbn=978-0-226-14847-2 |page=274, n. 53}}</ref>

In the traditional account, {{tlit|phn|i-shphan-im}} may be a derivation of the Phoenician {{tlit|phn|i-shpania}}, meaning "island of rabbits", "land of rabbits" or "edge", a reference to Spain's location at the end of the Mediterranean; Roman coins struck in the region from the reign of [[Hadrian]] show a female figure with a rabbit at her feet,<ref name=burke>{{cite book|last = Burke|first = Ulick Ralph|title = A History of Spain from the Earliest Times to the Death of Ferdinand the Catholic, Volume 1|publisher=Longmans, Green & Co|year = 1895|location = London|page = 12|hdl = 2027/hvd.fl29jg?urlappend=%3Bseq=36}}</ref> and [[Strabo]] called it the "land of the rabbits".<ref name=Spain>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Spain}}</ref> The word in question actually means "[[Hyrax]]", possibly due to the Phoenicians confusing the two animals.

Semitic philologists {{Interlanguage link|Jesús Luis Cunchillos|es}} and [[José Ángel Zamora López|José Ángel Zamora]] hypothesise, following a comparative study between several Semitic languages, that the Phoenician name translates as "land where metals are forged", having determined that the name originated in reference to the gold mines of the Iberian Peninsula.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.es/espana/20140829/abci-donde-procede-palabra-espana-201408281811.html|title="I-span-ya", el misterioso origen de la palabra España|last=ABC|date=28 August 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161113170715/http://www.abc.es/espana/20140829/abci-donde-procede-palabra-espana-201408281811.html|archive-date=13 November 2016 |language=es}}</ref> Cunchillos argues that the root of the term ''span'' is the [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]] word {{tlit|phn|spy}}, meaning 'to [[Forging|forge metals]]'. Therefore, {{tlit|phn|i-spn-ya}} would mean "the land where metals are forged".<ref>{{cite book | last=Castro | first=María Cruz Fernández | editor-last=Linch |editor-first=John |title=La Península Ibérica en época prerromana | publisher=El Pais | publication-place=Madrid | date=2007 | series=Historia de España |isbn=978-84-9815-764-2 | language=es |volume=2 |page=40 |chapter=La etimología de España; ¿tierra de conejos?}}</ref>