Brazil
- 1A large Portuguese-speaking country occupying much of eastern South America, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, with its capital at Brasília.
Much of the Amazon rainforest lies within the borders of Brazil.
Brazil exports vast quantities of coffee, soybeans, and iron ore.
Note
A country named after a tree. Brazilwood was brasil in Portuguese, a word that first meant "red like an ember": it was built from brasa, "ember", and a suffix meaning "-like". The land then took the tree's name. English keeps the older Portuguese spelling with a z. Portuguese now writes Brasil, so expect the s-spelling in Portuguese-language texts and the z in English ones.
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Origin
From Portuguese Brazil, an older spelling of Brasil, from brasil ('brazilwood'), originally meaning 'red like an ember'. This comes from brasa ('ember'), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *brasō ('gleed, crackling coal'), with the suffix -il from Latin -īlis.