14世纪晚期，源自拉丁语 Æthiops，意为“埃塞俄比亚人，黑人”，而这个词又来自希腊语 Aithiops。在流行的词源解释中，人们曾认为它来自 aithein（意为“燃烧”）+ ōps（意为“脸”），因此有了 aithops（“看起来像火”），后来又引申为“晒黑的”。
Who the Homeric Æthiopians were is a matter of doubt. The poet elsewhere speaks of two divisions of them, one dwelling near the rising, the other near the setting of the sun, both having imbrowned visages from their proximity to that luminary, and both leading a blissful existence, because living amid a flood of light; and, as a natural concomitant of a blissful existence, blameless, and pure, and free from every kind of moral defilement. [Charles Anthon, note to "The First Six Books of Homer's Iliad," 1878]
荷马笔下的埃塞俄比亚人究竟是谁，这一直是个谜。诗人曾提到他们分为两类，一类居住在日出的地方，另一类则在日落之处。由于靠近太阳，他们的面容都被晒黑了，而且他们过着幸福的生活，因为生活在光明的洪流中；作为幸福生活的自然伴随，他们无辜、纯洁，远离一切道德污垢。[查尔斯·安东，《荷马《伊利亚特》前六卷注释》，1878年]
