From the time of the Greeks, the country in the extreme upper right hand corner of Africa on the map,has been known as Egypt. In archaic Greek is was known as Aigyptos from Aigaiou hyptios, meaning "below the Aegean." From the original Greek it passed into all European languages in a similar vein; Aegypten in German, Egypte in Dutch, Egipt in Polish. The English usage of Egypt came from the Middle French word Egypte and the Latin Aegyptus.
However, Egyptians have called their country Masr, for the last thousand years and it is known throughout the Arab world as Misr, as Misr in Hindi, and as Mishor in Bengali. All are of semitic origin, literally meaning the two straits, a reference to upper and lower Egypt. Ancient Egyptians called their civilization Kemet, black land and the surrounding Sahara as deshret, meaning red land.
All of Masr is Masr for the modern Egyptians. Cairo itself, although known as al-Qahira outside the country, is simple called Masr throughout modern Egypt. The city has become indistinguisable from the nation and when the Egyptians talk of Cairo they talk of Egypt.
For those in the West, the word Egypt no longer carries any negative connotations; in the East, however, the name Egypt is still viewed as a Western pejorative. (see Ghosh, Amitav, In an Antique Land, Granta, 1992).
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