Melanesia

[mel-uh-nee-zhuh, -shuh]

noun

one of the three principal divisions of Oceania, comprising the island groups in the S Pacific NE of Australia.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for melanesia

Historical Examples of melanesia

There is more pure plutocracy in Melanesia than in New York.
Folkways
William Graham Sumner
In Vao, as in all Melanesia, the pig is the most valued of animals.
Two Years with the Natives in the Western Pacific
Felix Speiser
The pig-cult, or “Suque,” is found almost all over Melanesia.
Two Years with the Natives in the Western Pacific
Felix Speiser
Complete totemism is not asserted here, and is denied for Melanesia.
Myth, Ritual, and Religion, Vol. 1
Andrew Lang
But, after all, Melanesia is becoming more and more a substantial reality.'
Life of John Coleridge Patteson
Charlotte M. Yonge

British Dictionary definitions for melanesia

Melanesia

noun

one of the three divisions of islands in the Pacific (the others being Micronesia and Polynesia); the SW division of Oceania: includes Fiji, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the Louisiade, Solomon, Santa Cruz, and Loyalty Islands, which all lie northeast of Australia

Word Origin for Melanesia

C19: from Greek melas black + nēsos island; with reference to the dark skins of the inhabitants; on the model of Polynesia

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for melanesia

Melanesia

one of three large divisions of Pacific islands, 1840, from a continental language, from melano- + nesos "island" (see Chersonese) + -ia. Modeled after Polynesia and meant to signify "the islands inhabited by blacks."

La Melanesia comprende la grande isola Australia, e quelle degli arcipelaghi di Salomone, di Lapèrouse, di Quiros, e dei gruppi della Nuova Caledonia, di Norfolk, e della Diemenin. A cagione dei Neri Oceanici, che, quasi esclusivamente, ne popolano le regioni, questa parte della Oceania ebbe dai moderni geografi e viaggiatori (il Graberg, il Rienzi, il d'Urville, ec.) il nome di Melanesia. ["Corso di Geografia Universale," Firenze, 1839]