Curaçao (pronounced
/'kj??r?sa?/ in English;
Dutch Curaçao,
Papiamentu Kòrsou) is an
island in the southern
Caribbean Sea, off the
Venezuelan coast. The
island area of Curaçao (Dutch
Eilandgebied Curaçao, Papiamentu
Teritorio Insular di Kòrsou), which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of
Klein Curaçao ("Little Curaçao"), is one of five
island areas of the
Netherlands Antilles, and as such, is a part of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its capital is
Willemstad.
Curaçao is the largest and most populous of the three so called ABC islands (for Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao) of the Lesser Antilles, specifically the Leeward Antilles. It has a land area of 444 square kilometers (171 square miles). As of 1 January 2008, it had a population of 140,796.[1]
The origin of the name Curaçao is still under debate. One explanation is that it is derived from the Portuguese word for heart (coração), referring to the island as a centre in trade, or it could mean healing (curação) for the plants that grow on the island. Spanish traders took the name over as Curaçao, which was followed by the Dutch. Another explanation is that Curaçao was the name the indigenous peoples of Curaçao had used to label themselves (Joubert and Van Buurt, 1994). This theory is supported by early Spanish accounts, which refer to the indigenous peoples as "Indios Curaçaos".
The most popular theory is that the Spanish named the island "Corazon" (Spanish for "heart") for its heart shape, which later became "Curaçao", derived from the Portuguese word for heart, "Coração".
