South Africa
- 1A country in Southern Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, with capital functions shared between Pretoria, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein.
South Africa exports gold, platinum, and a range of other minerals.
The rugby team brought South Africa together during the 1995 World Cup.
Note
The name is a shortening of Union of South Africa, the state's earlier official title, which recorded how the country began: four British colonies, once separate, joined into one. The present formal name, Republic of South Africa, keeps that same core. In running prose the short form takes no article, so you write in South Africa, never in the South Africa.
- 2The geographic region at the southern end of the African continent, taken as a whole area rather than the single modern country sharing the name.
Missionaries journeyed through South Africa, mapping rivers from the Cape to the Zambezi.
Nineteenth-century explorers wrote at length about the deserts and grasslands of South Africa.
Note
A regional name now out of step with the map. In 1901 The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record promised delivery to "all parts of South Africa" except the Portuguese Colonies, which only makes sense if the name covered a whole stretch of territory. That use is now nonstandard, because the name belongs to the country. For the wider area, write Southern Africa, with a capital S.
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Origin
The name derives from Union of South Africa, the country's former official name, which referred to its origin from the unification of four formerly separate British colonies.