Etymology

Main article: Names of Korea

See also: Korean romanization
"Korea" is the modern spelling of "Corea", a name attested in English as early as 1614.[10] It is
an exonym derived from Cauli, Marco Polo's transcription[11] of the Chinese (simp.
, MCKawlej,[12] mod.Gol). This was the Hanja for the Korean kingdom of Goryeo or Kory (;
9181392), which ruled most of the peninsula during the time of his travels. (Scholars who discount
the historicity of Polo's account instead derive it via Persian variations of the same Chinese name.[13])
Goryeo's name was a continuation of the earlier Goguryeoor Kogury (; 37BC AD668), the
northernmost of the Samguk (the Three Kingdoms of Korea), which was officially known by the
shortened form Goryeo after the 5th-century reign of King Jangsu. The original name was a
combination of the adjective go ("high, lofty") with the name of a local Yemaek tribe, whose original
name is thought to have been either *Guru (, "walled city," inferred from some toponyms in
Chinese historical documents) or *Gauri (, "center"). With expanding British and American
trade following the opening of Korea in the late 19th century, the spelling "Korea" appeared and
gradually grew in popularity;[10] its use in transcribing East Asianlanguages avoids the issues caused
by the separate hard and soft Cs existing in English vocabulary derived from the Romance
languages. The name Korea is now commonly used in English contexts by both North and South
Korea.