New Guinea (; ; ; or, historically, "") is a large island in Oceania. It is the world's second-largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of , and the largest wholly or partly within the Southern Hemisphere and Oceania (if excluding Australia as an island). 

The island is divided between two countries: Papua New Guinea to the east, and Indonesia to the west. 

The island has been known by various names: 

The name "Papua" was used to refer to parts of the island before contact with the West. Its etymology is unclear; one theory states that it is from Tidore, the language used by the Sultanate of Tidore, which controlled parts of the island's coastal region. The name came from "papo" (to unite) and "ua" (negation), which means "not united" or, "territory that geographically is far away (and thus not united)". 

Ploeg reports that the word "papua" is often said to derive from the Malay word "papua" or "pua-pua", meaning "frizzly-haired", referring to the highly curly hair of the inhabitants of these areas. Another possibility, put forward by Sollewijn Gelpke in 1993, is that it comes from the Biak phrase "sup i papwa" which means 'the land below [the sunset]' and refers to the islands west of the Bird's Head, as far as Halmahera. Whatever its origin, the name "Papua" came to be associated with this area, and more especially with Halmahera, which was known to the Portuguese by this name during the era of their colonization in this part of the world.
What does papo mean?
to unite