Editing Netherlands (section)

===Netherlands and the Low Countries===
The countries that comprise the region called the [[Low Countries]] (Netherlands, [[Belgium]], and [[Luxembourg]]) all have comparatively the same [[toponymy]]. Place names with {{lang|gem|Neder}}, {{lang|gem|Nieder}}, {{lang|gem|Nedre}}, {{lang|gem|Nether}}, {{lang|gem|Lage(r)}} or {{lang|gem|Low(er)}} (in [[Germanic languages]]) and {{lang|roa|Bas}} or {{lang|roa|Inferior}} (in [[Romance languages]]) are in use in low-lying places all over Europe. The [[Roman Empire|Romans]] made a distinction between the Roman provinces of downstream [[Germania Inferior]] (nowadays part of Belgium and the Netherlands) and upstream [[Germania Superior]]. Thus, in the case of the Low Countries and the Netherlands, the geographical location of this ''lower'' region is more or less downstream and near the sea, compared to that of the upper region of Germania Superior. The designation 'Low' returned in the 10th-century Duchy of [[Lower Lorraine]], which covered much of the Low Countries.<ref name="Franks (Columbia Encyclopedia)">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Franks.aspx |title=Franks |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |encyclopedia=[[Columbia Encyclopedia]] |year=2013 |access-date=1 February 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://nobhist.narod.ru/lorraine.html |title=Lotharingia / Lorraine (Lothringen) |date=5 September 2013 |access-date=1 February 2014}}</ref>

The [[Dukes of Burgundy]] used the term ''les pays de par deçà'' ("the lands over here") for the Low Countries.<ref name="BlockmansPrevenier2010">{{cite book |author1=Wim Blockmans |author2=Walter Prevenier |title=The Promised Lands: The Low Countries Under Burgundian Rule, 1369–1530 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Foy9GGgdcgC&q=duke+pays+de+par+deçà&pg=PA85 |date=3 August 2010 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-0070-6 |pages=85–}}</ref> Under [[Habsburg Netherlands|Habsburg rule]], this became ''pays d'embas'' ("lands down-here").<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=59Pae06JSiUC&q=The%20New%20Cambridge%20Modern%20History%3A%20Volume%202%2C%20The%20Reformation%2C%201520-1559&pg=PA342 |title=The New Cambridge Modern History: Volume 2, The Reformation, 1520–1559 |isbn=978-0-521-34536-1 |last1=Elton |first1=Geoffrey Rudolph |year=1990 |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> This was translated as {{lang|nl|Neder-landen}} in contemporary Dutch official documents.<ref name="Lem">{{cite web |last=Van der Lem |first=Anton |title=De Opstand in de Nederlanden 1555–1609;De landen van herwaarts over |url=http://www.dutchrevolt.leiden.edu/dutch/verhaal/Pages/verhaal01.aspx |access-date=11 March 2013 |archive-date=10 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010141427/http://www.dutchrevolt.leiden.edu/dutch/verhaal/Pages/verhaal01.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref> From a regional point of view, ''Niderlant'' was also the area between the [[Meuse (river)|Meuse]] and the lower [[Rhine]] in the late Middle Ages. From the mid-sixteenth century, the "Low Countries" and the "Netherlands" lost their original [[deixis|deictic meaning]].

In most [[Romance languages]], the term "Low Countries" is officially used as the name for the Netherlands.