Changes

==Etymology==

==Etymology==

According to the Historian Serhii Plokhy, "The word “Ukraine,” which today is used to define an independent country in the middle of Europe, has medieval origins and was first used by the Kyivan chroniclers of the twelfth century to define the areas of today’s Ukraine bordering on the Pontic steppes. In the second half of the seventeenth century the term “Ukraine” entered the international vocabulary as one of the names of the Cossack polity created in the course of the Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648–

According to the Historian Serhii Plokhy, "The word “Ukraine,” which today is used to define an independent country in the middle of Europe, has medieval origins and was first used by the Kyivan chroniclers of the twelfth century to define the areas of today’s Ukraine bordering on the Pontic steppes. In the second half of the seventeenth century the term “Ukraine” entered the international vocabulary as one of the names of the Cossack polity created in the course of the Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648–

57). By that time, European geographers could already locate Ukraine on the maps produced by the French engineer and cartographer Guillaume Levasseur de Beauplan. His, however, was not the first depiction of Ukraine on a European map".<ref>{{cite book |last=Plokhy |first=Serhii |chapter=2. Placing Ukraine on the Map of Europe |title=The Frontline: Essays on Ukraine’s Past and Present |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2021 |pages=15-36 |doi=10.4159/9780674268852-005 |url=https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/mapa/files/princescossaksarticle.pdf?m=1607093596}}</ref>

57). By that time, European geographers could already locate Ukraine on the maps produced by the French engineer and cartographer Guillaume Levasseur de Beauplan. His, however, was not the first depiction of Ukraine on a European map".<ref>{{cite book |last=Plokhy |first=Serhii |chapter=2. Placing Ukraine on the Map of Europe |title=The Frontline: Essays on Ukraine’s Past and Present |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2021 |pages=15-36 |doi=10.4159/9780674268852-005 |url=https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/mapa/files/princescossaksarticle.pdf?m=1607093596}}</ref>

Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan's maps, including the 1648 "General Map of Ukraine" (Delineatio Generalis Camporum Desertorum vulgo Ukraina), depict Ukraine as a distinct region, influencing European cartography for centuries. Beauplan, a French engineer in Polish service, based it on surveys of Cossack lands.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oldworldauctions.com/info/article/2022-03-Heart-of-Ukraine-in-Early-Maps|title=The Heart of Ukraine in Early Maps|website=Old World Auctions|author=Eliane}}</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/Ukrainae1 Old map of Ukraine : Tabula geographica Ukrainska by Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan]</ref>

Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan's maps, including the 1648 "General Map of Ukraine" (Delineatio Generalis Camporum Desertorum vulgo Ukraina), depict Ukraine as a distinct region, influencing European cartography for centuries. Beauplan, a French engineer in Polish service, based it on surveys of Cossack lands.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oldworldauctions.com/info/article/2022-03-Heart-of-Ukraine-in-Early-Maps|title=The Heart of Ukraine in Early Maps|website=Old World Auctions|author=Eliane}}</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/Ukrainae1 Old map of Ukraine : Tabula geographica Ukrainska by Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan]</ref>

According to a Harvard article made by Brian J. Boeck, the term "Ukraine" (Ukraïna) originally meant "borderland" or "frontier" and was used by Ukrainians, Russians, and Poles. In the 16th and 17th centuries, it came to refer to the Cossack lands of the Dnieper River basin. The ethnonym "Ukrainian" (ukraïnets') was used as a national name by only a small number of educated people in the 1840s. A century later, millions of people had adopted or acknowledged the name. Before its revitalization in the 1830s, ukraïnets' was a general term for frontiersmen and a regional name for residents of certain districts. The article states there is no evidence it was consistently used as a national name in the early modern period. The widespread adoption of the name ''Ukraina'' for the entire national territory and population began in the 1870s. The conscious adoption and promotion of ukraïnets' was an achievement of the national movement to replace a diversity of names.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Boeck |first=Brian J. |title=What's in a Name? Semantic Separation and the Rise of the Ukrainian National Name |journal=Harvard Ukrainian Studies |volume=27 |issue=1-4 |pages=33-65 |year=2004-2005 |url=https://www.husj.harvard.edu/articles/whats-in-a-name-semantic-separation-and-the-rise-of-the-ukrainian-national-name}}</ref>

According to a Harvard article made by Brian J. Boeck, the term "Ukraine" (Ukraïna) originally meant "borderland" or "frontier" and was used by Ukrainians, Russians, and Poles. In the 16th and 17th centuries, it came to refer to the Cossack lands of the Dnieper River basin. The ethnonym "Ukrainian" (ukraïnets') was used as a national name by only a small number of educated people in the 1840s. A century later, millions of people had adopted or acknowledged the name. Before its revitalization in the 1830s, ukraïnets' was a general term for frontiersmen and a regional name for residents of certain districts. The article states there is no evidence it was consistently used as a national name in the early modern period. The widespread adoption of the name ''Ukraina'' for the entire national territory and population began in the 1870s. The conscious adoption and promotion of ukraïnets' was an achievement of the national movement to replace a diversity of names.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Boeck |first=Brian J. |title=What's in a Name? Semantic Separation and the Rise of the Ukrainian National Name |journal=Harvard Ukrainian Studies |volume=27 |issue=1-4 |pages=33-65 |year=2004-2005 |url=https://www.husj.harvard.edu/articles/whats-in-a-name-semantic-separation-and-the-rise-of-the-ukrainian-national-name}}</ref>

Ukrainian scholars, such as Serhiy Shelukhin, Fedir Shevchenko, Hryhoriy Pivtorak and Mykola Andrusyak propose that the name is derived from Ukraina in the sense of ‘region, principality, country’. Many medieval occurrences of the word can be interpreted as having that meaning. In this sense, the word can be associated with contemporary Ukrainian krajina, Belarusian kraina and Russian and Polish kraj, all meaning ‘country’ (see Translations, 'region of land').<ref>[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14124601]</ref>

Ukrainian scholars, such as Serhiy Shelukhin, Fedir Shevchenko, Hryhoriy Pivtorak and Mykola Andrusyak propose that the name is derived from Ukraina in the sense of ‘region, principality, country’. Many medieval occurrences of the word can be interpreted as having that meaning. In this sense, the word can be associated with contemporary Ukrainian krajina, Belarusian kraina and Russian and Polish kraj, all meaning ‘country’ (see Translations, 'region of land').<ref>[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14124601]</ref>

Other Historians reject the notion of the word as "borderland" and link it to kraj/krajina (native land, country), and another view connects it to ukraïty (to cut off), meaning "a piece of land separated from the whole". Linguist V. Sklyarenko, is that Ukraina derives from kraj/krajina, but with a more complex development. In Old Slavic, kraj meant “piece of land,” and with the suffix -ina formed krajina (“territory, land belonging to a tribe”). From this, ukraj and later ukraina emerged as “a separated part of land/territory.” Over time, during the Kyivan Rus’ period, the meaning shifted: from “part of a tribal land” to “part of a principality,” and later simply “principality.” In medieval chronicles, different “ukrainas” referred to specific principalities (Pereyaslav, Galicia, Volhynia, Kyiv, etc.). According to them "ukraina" and "okrayina" were distinct words: the former meant a complete territorial unit, while the latter meant only a border area.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://litopys.org.ua/pivtorak/pivt12.htm|title=«Україна» — це не «окраїна»|language=uk|website=ІЗБОРНИК}}</ref>

Other Historians reject the notion of the word as "borderland" and link the word instead to kraj/krajina (native land, country), and another view connects it to ukraïty (to cut off), meaning "a piece of land separated from the whole". Linguist V. Sklyarenko, is that Ukraina derives from kraj/krajina, but with a more complex development. In Old Slavic, kraj meant “piece of land,” and with the suffix -ina formed krajina (“territory, land belonging to a tribe”). From this, ukraj and later ukraina emerged as “a separated part of land/territory.” Over time, during the Kyivan Rus’ period, the meaning shifted: from “part of a tribal land” to “part of a principality,” and later simply “principality.” In medieval chronicles, different “ukrainas” referred to specific principalities (Pereyaslav, Galicia, Volhynia, Kyiv, etc.). According to them "ukraina" and "okrayina" were distinct words: the former meant a complete territorial unit, while the latter meant only a border area.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://litopys.org.ua/pivtorak/pivt12.htm|title=«Україна» — це не «окраїна»|language=uk|website=ІЗБОРНИК}}</ref>

==Geography==

==Geography==