There are several versions of the origin of the terms "Old" and "New World". According to one of them, Amerigo Vespucci introduced them in 1503, according to another - Christopher Columbus used them back in 1492 to separate the known and new open lands. The expressions Old and New World were used for several centuries, until they completely went out of fashion and lost relevance in connection with the discovery of new islands and continents.
Old World and New World: geography
Europeans traditionally referred to the concept of the Old World two continents - Eurasia and Africa, i.e. only those lands that were known before the discovery of the two Americas, and to the New World - North and South America. These designations quickly became fashionable and widespread. The terms quickly became very capacious, they applied not only to the geographical concepts of the known and unknown world. They began to call the Old World something generally known, traditional or conservative, the New World - something fundamentally new, little studied, revolutionary.
In biology, flora and fauna are also customarily divided geographically into the gifts of the Old and New Worlds. But unlike the traditional interpretation of the term, the New World in biological terms includes plants and animals of Australia.
Later, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania and a number of islands were discovered in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. They were not included in the New World and were denoted by the broad term Southern Lands. At the same time, the term Unknown Southern Land appeared - a theoretical continent at the South Pole. The icy continent was discovered only in 1820 and also did not become part of the New World. Thus, the terms Old and New Worlds refer not so much to geographical concepts as to the historical-temporal border "before and after" the discovery and development of the American continents.
