What is the meaning of the name 'Patagonia'?

Question

Sure, it's a country- but what does the name mean?

Answer 1

According to Antonio Pigafetta, one of the Magellan expedition's few survivors and its published chronicler, Magellan bestowed the name "Patagão" (or Patagoni) on the inhabitants they encountered there, and the name "Patagonia" for the region. Although Pigafetta's account does not describe how this name came about, subsequent popular interpretations gave credence to a derivation meaning 'land of the big feet'. However, this etymology is questionable.

The main interest in the region sparked by Pigafetta's account came from his reports of their meeting with the local inhabitants, who they claimed to measure some nine to twelve feet in height —"...so tall that we reached only to his waist"—, and hence the later idea that Patagonia meant "big feet". This supposed race of Patagonian giants or Patagones entered into the common European perception of this little-known and distant area, to be further fuelled by subsequent reports of other expeditions and famous-name travellers like Sir Francis Drake, which seemed to confirm these accounts. Early charts of the New World sometimes added the legend regio gigantum ("region of the giants") to the Patagonian area. By 1611 the Patagonian god Setebos (Settaboth in Pigafetta) was familiar to the hearers of The Tempest.

Answer 2

'Land Of The Big Feet'

Answer 3

All the people who live there like to pat their gonads.

Answer 4

It's not a country..it's an area of south america covering both Argentina and Chile.Why don't you post the question on the Argentinian site??

Answer 5

I dunno. I do know it aint a country but a region though.

Answer 6

pull out a begonia and pat it in the head and then plant it back in the garden

Answer 7

It is not a country.  it is a region in the southern extreme of South America, that involves the southern thirds of Chile and Argentina.  the name is given because of the "Patagon" indians who used to inhabit the region.  It is now taken to represent vast extenses of land, virtually uninhabited, except for some very hardy farmers and some rich foreigners who like the fishing.