Afer

Meaning

Adj

from Africa (the region of modern-day Tunisia)

Name

1. (declension-2) a Carthaginian
2. (Roman-Empire, declension-2) cognomen applied to a native of the province of Africa
3. (Roman-Empire, declension-2) cognomen applied to a native of the province of Africa:

Concepts

African

Punic

Carthaginian

Synonyms

Africus

Carthaginiensis

Poenus

Punicus

Africanus

Translations

afrikanisch

africano

بونيّ

púnic

cartaginès

africà

Afrikaner

karthagisch

punisch

αφρικανικός

punique

africain

carthaginois

africano

cartaginese

Pronounced as (IPA)

[ˈaː.fɛr]

Etymology

From a Punic or a Berber term for the country in which the city of Carthage was located. It is possibly derived from an ethnonym, a name of an indigenous tribe encountered by the Phoenician colonists, or perhaps related to Punic 𐤏𐤐𐤓 (ʿpr /⁠ʿafar⁠/, “dust”) akin to Biblical Hebrew עָפָר (ʿāp̄ār, “dust”), or alternatively from a Berber language ⵉⴼⵔⵉ (ifri, “cave”), denoting cave dwellers. Flavius Josephus derived the ethnonym from the name of Abraham's grandson, Epher. The name is perhaps related to the tribal name Ifran recorded by medieval Arab authors.