高考英语降分利大于弊:为什么把中国译成CHINA,CHINA是从什么时候开始用的

根据《牛津英语大词典》的说法，China 一词大约来源于两千年前的梵文，而且在多种亚洲文字中都有其变体。在欧洲，最早使用该词的非马可·波罗莫属了。该字出现在英文词汇中大概可以追溯到1555年。

其实按日本人的说法，这个词也就是支那，变体很多，如sina（新浪网），sinopec（中国石化）中的sino都是

也有人说，这个词是“秦”的音译，甚至有人说是景德镇的音译，因为众所周知景德镇最知名的瓷器也是china

不过在秦朝肯定是没china这个词的，因为知道罗马帝国时期，安东尼（2世纪）的使臣还将中国叫做Seres（好象是这个），此词出自马可·波罗的著作应该是没什么悬念的啦

中国瓷器文明西方，在唐朝。

English and many other languages use forms of the name China and the prefix Sino- or Sin-, which is believed to have derived from the name of the Qin dynasty that first unified the country, although this is still highly controversial. Despite the fact that the Qin dynasty was short-lived and often regarded as overly tyrannical, it unified the written language in China and gave the supreme ruler of China the title of "Emperor"; hence the subsequent Silk Road traders might have identified themselves by that name.

In any circumstance, the word China passed through many languages along the Silk Road before it finally reached Europe and England. The Western "China", transliterated to Shina (支那) was also used by Japanese from the nineteenth century, but is now obsolete and is regarded as an offensive term by the Chinese.

意思是说，是秦开始的（音），但是有争议。