oceania

noun

1. the islands of the central and S Pacific, including Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia, and traditionally Australasia. About 3,450,000 sq. mi. (8,935,500 sq. km).

noun

1. the islands of the central and S Pacific, including Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia: sometimes also including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago

“southern Pacific island and Australia, conceived as a continent,” 1849, Modern Latin, from French Océanie (c.1812). Apparently coined by Danish geographer Conrad Malte-Brun (1755-1826). Earlier in English as Oceanica (1832). Oceania was the name of one of the superstates in Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” Oceanea, name of James Harrington’s 17c. ideal state, later was applied to the British empire.