Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • An ancient city and state of northern Africa on the Bay of Tunis northeast of modern Tunis. It was founded by the Phoenicians in the ninth century BC and became the center of a maritime empire in the Mediterranean after the sixth century BC. The city was destroyed by the Romans at the end of the Third Punic War (146 BC) but was rebuilt by Julius Caesar and later (AD 439–533) served as capital of the Vandals before its virtual annihilation by the Arabs (698).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun An ancient city in North Africa, in modern Tunisia.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an ancient city state on the north African coast near modern Tunis; founded by Phoenicians; destroyed and rebuilt by Romans; razed by Arabs in 697

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin Carthāgo, from Phoenician 𐤒𐤀𐤓𐤕𐤇𐤀𐤃𐤀𐤔𐤕 (Qart-ḥadašt, "New City"), implying that it was a “new Tyre” (Carthage was founded by Phoenician colonists from Tyre). Compare the Aramaic קרתא חדאתא (qarta ḥdatha, "new city"). Cognate to Ancient Greek Καρχηδών (Karkhēdōn), Arabic قرطاج (Qarṭāj), Berber ⴽⴰⵔⵜⴰⵊⴻⵏ (Kartajen), modern Hebrew קרתגו (Qartágo).

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