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More than one name is used to refer to the Netherlands, both in English and in other languages. Some of these names refer to different, but overlapping geographical, linguistic and political areas of the country. This is a common source of confusion for outsiders. In English the country is called 'the Netherlands' (or frequently – as a pars pro toto 'Holland'), while the people and the language are called 'Dutch'. In Dutch the official (and predominant) terms for these are 'Nederland' for the country, 'Nederlanders' for the people and 'Nederlands' for the language, although they are occasionally (colloquially) called 'Holland', 'Hollanders' and (less frequently) 'Hollands' respectively. Occasionally the ''the'' is incorrectly capitalised: 'the Netherlands' is similar to names such as 'the United States' and 'the Federal Republic of Germany', so the 't' should usually not be capitalised. Historically, the English did not distinguish inhabitants of the Low Countries by 'nationality'. In the 15th and the first half of the 16th century, all persons from Germanic lands were called ''Flemings'', ''Theotonici'', ''Doch'', or sometimes ''Germani''. In the second half of the 16th century, all Germanic speakers or inhabitants of the Holy Roman Empire were called ''Dutch'' or ''Douch''. ==Netherlands== 'Netherlands' literally means 'Low countries' or 'Lowlands'. Dutch ''neder'' and its English cognate ''nether'' both mean 'down(ward), below'. The English word is now uncommon, mostly replaced by ''lower'' in English.〔see:(Online Etymology Dictionary on Nether ) However, the explanation given in this source about the origin of the word ''Nederlanden'' as used "by the Austrians" in contradistinction to their own mountainous country, is extremely implausible, if only because the use of the word antedates the Austrian Netherlands by two centuries at least. Austria itself has a ''Niederösterreich'' region (Lower Austria) that is quite mountainous, but derives its name from its downriver location.〕 ''Neder'' or ''nether'' may simply have denoted the geographical characteristics of the land, both flat and down river. This may have applied to the singular form ''Nederland'', or ''Niderland''. It was a geographical description of low regions in the Germanic lands. Thus it was also used to refer specifically to the estuaries of the Scheldt, Meuse and Rhine, including the Lower Rhineland. However the plural form ''Nederlanden'', in use since the 15th century for the area known as the Burgundian Netherlands, probably has a different origin, if only because most of the area that is and was designated by the term is not flat, low-lying, or even down-river. The Francophone Burgundian central government used the deixic terms ''pays de par deça'' (lands over here; from the standpoint of the Duke, who at this time resided in Brussels most of the time), as opposed to ''pays de par dela'' (lands over there) for the Burgundian homeland. This was literally translated into Dutch at the time as ''landen van herwaarts over'' and ''landen van derwaarts over'', respectively. Mary of Hungary started to use the equally deixic expression ''pays d'embas'' (lands down-here) interchangeably with ''pays de par deça'' in official correspondence, as did Charles V in the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549. This was translated with the deixic construction ''Neder-landen'' in contemporary Dutch official documents. Such constructions with ''neder'' were already old at the time. For instance Melis Stoke used the term ''Neder Zassen'' for Lower-Saxony in his ''Rijmkroniek'' (chronicle in rhyme, c. 1290): "Old books hear I mentioning/ That all the land below Nijmegen/ Formerly was called Lower Saxony(''neder Zassen'')."〔 Apparently, the etymology of the German word ''Niedersachsen'' goes back to this Dutch source; see (【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.hubert-herald.nl/DeuNiedersachsen.htm )〕 In modern Dutch these constructions are still used, cf. ''Neder-Oostenrijk'' (Lower Austria), ''Neder-Silezië'' (Lower Silesia). In all cases the word ''neder'' does not imply any connection with the character of the landscape, but is used in opposition to constructions with e.g. ''opper'' (upper). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Netherlands (toponymy)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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