Language & WorldFact
Argentina is named after a metal it barely has.
'Argentina' comes from Latin 'argentum', silver. In the 16th century Spanish explorers heard rumours of a 'Sierra de la Plata', a silver mountain range inland, and named the estuary Río de la Plata, river of silver. The silver was really in Potosí, in today's Bolivia. The name stuck; 'República Argentina' became official in 1860.
Useful: The chemical symbol Ag for silver and Argentina share the same root.
Source: en.wikipedia.org