CHERSONESUS, among geographers, the same as a peninsula, or land almost encompassed by the sea, and only joined to the continent by a narrow neck or isthmus. The word is Greek, χερσώνες, from χῆρος, land, or earth, and νῆς, island. In ancient geography it was applied to several peninsulas, as the Chersonesus Aurea, Cimbria, Taurica, and Thracia, now thought to be Malacca, Jutland, the Crimea, and Romania.