Editing Cebu (section)

== Etymology ==
[[File:Sugbumap.png|left|thumb|upright|A map of Cebu Island in 1521, with the historical polity of Cebu colored in blue.]]
It is unclear whether the island was named ''sugbó'' or the settlement where [[Ferdinand Magellan]]'s crew arrived in 1521. The capital city of the province is also named [[Cebu City]].

The name is possibly derived from a hypothetical [[Proto-Philippine language|Proto-Philippine]] word ''*sug(e)bu'' meaning "to bathe" or "to wade into the water".<ref name=":1" /> The word has evolved in the Cebuano language as ''sugbú,'' meaning "to dive into water" and also exists in other Philippine languages such as [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]] and [[Hiligaynon language|Hiligaynon]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Benitez |first=Jiolito Luzano |title=Historicity of City and Town Names in the Province of Cebu |url=https://jhe.cnu.edu.ph/index.php/ojs3/article/view/27 |journal=Cebu Normal University-Journal of Higher Education |publication-date=September 14, 2017 |volume=11 |pages=4 }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=ACD - Austronesian Comparative Dictionary - Cognate Sets - s |url=https://www.trussel2.com/ACD/acd-s_s1.htm#12691 |access-date=2024-03-16 |website=trussel2.com}}</ref> In fact, there is also another municipality in Batangas, Philippines called [[Nasugbu]], which may also share the same etymological root with the said province.

The modern name is most likely how the first Europeans heard of the name of the place in the 16th-17th centuries, as it was first recorded as Zubu or Çubu, and then eventually it became Cebu. The reason of the spelling change is because Visayans [[Baybayin#Early history|were mostly illiterate in the 16th and 17th centuries]].<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Stanley |first=Henry Edward John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-lTEwgEACAAJ |title=The First Voyage Around the World by Magellan |publisher=The Hakluyt Society |year=1874 |pages=84–105 |language=English}}</ref>
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