Feel free to use this thread to ask small questions or share random language / linguistics trivia, if you don’t feel like creating a new thread just for that.
(Just to be clear: yes, if you want to create a new thread for your question/trivia, you can. I’m only trying to stimulate discussion in the comm.)
Do that mean the Austria and Australia are etymologically related? That’s amazing
Yes. But only distantly though.
The Latin name Austria is literally “southernia”. It’s a mistranslation of Old High German Ōstarrīhhi “eastern realm”; auster/ōstar sound similar because they are cognates indeed, but they mean different directions. A more accurate Latinisation would be probably Orientia; from oriens “east”.
In the meantime Australia was the result of some XVII century Latin, ⟨terra australis incognita⟩ “unknown southern land”.