continent

A continuous land mass which has a distinct identity, and which is larger than a certain arbitrary size:

• The New World
  • North America
  • Central America
  • South America
• The Old World, plus a bit more
  • Africa
  • Eurasia
    • Europe
    • Asia
    • Indian Subcontinent
    • Arabian Peninsula
  • Indonesia
  • Australia
• Antarctica

The list of "continents" is shaped by two forces, which sometimes act in concert, and sometimes in opposition:

• Physical geography resulting from geological processes. To a geologist, a "continent" is a mass of sial or continental crust, plus the sediments that have washed off of it. This includes any continental shelf in addition to the part above water.

  The physical limits of most continents are fairly obvious; at least the bits above water. If we use geological criteria exclusively, Europe and Asia merge into one continent, Eurasia.  The two subcontinents of India and Arabia each have a tectonic identity far stronger than Europe's. Finally, Indonesia emerges as an eighth continent, mostly drowned since the end of the last ice age. The traditonal discrimination between Australia as a continent and Greenland as an island is strengthened by the fact that Australia is on its own tectonic plate, and Greenland is not.
  
   

• Cultural geography forces, especially the historical identities of continents and political motivaitons for retaining those identities.  The distinction between Europe and Asia was made long before any geologists entered the picture, when Europe meant Greece (well, Crete really) and Asia meant Anatolia. Africa was a province of the Roman Empire, today's Tunisia.  Arabia Felix had its own  identity distinct from Asia.

  As the size of the traditional continents expanded with knowledge of the world, so did the size requirement for a "continent".  The fabulous Southern Continent was a device used by mapmakers to fill in an empty space on the world map; the continent actually discovered, Antarctica, was far different from the tropical paradise expected (except for that bit to the north, Australia).

Con"ti*nent (?), a. [L. continens, -entis, prop., p. pr. of continere to hold together, to repress: cf. F. continent. See Contain.]

1.

Serving to restrain or limit; restraining; opposing.

Shak.

2.

Exercising restraint as to the indulgence of desires or passions; temperate; moderate.

Have a continent forbearance till the speed of his rage goes slower.

Shak.

3.

Abstaining from sexual intercourse; exercising restraint upon the sexual appetite; esp., abstaining from illicit sexual intercourse; chaste.

My past life
Hath been as continent, as chaste, as true,
As I am now unhappy.

Shak.

4.

Not interrupted; connected; continuous; as, a continent fever.

The northeast part of Asia is, if not continent with the west side of America, yet certainly it is the least disoined by sea of all that coast. Berrewood.

© Webster 1913.

Con"ti*nent, n. [L. continens, prop., a holding together: cf. F. continent. See Continent, a.]

1.

That which contains anything; a receptacle.

The smaller continent which we call a pipkin. Bp. Kennet.

2.

One of the grand divisions of land on the globe; the main land; specifically Phys. Geog., a large body of land differing from an island, not merely in its size, but in its structure, which is that of a large basin bordered by mountain chains; as, the continent of North America.

⇒ The continents are now usually regarded as six in number: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. But other large bodies of land are also referred to as continents; as, the Antarctic continent; the continent of Greenland. Europe, Asia, and Africa are often grouped together as the Eastern Continent, and North and South America as the Western Continent.

The Continent, the main land of Europe, as distinguished from the islands, especially from England.

© Webster 1913.