[SUB- 5 b.] A land mass of great extent, but smaller than those generally called continents; a large section of a continent having a certain geographical or political independence; in recent use, spec. South Africa.
1863. Huxley, Man’s Place Nat., III. 154. From central Asia eastward to the Pacific islands and subcontinents on the one hand, and to America on the other.
1901. Scotsman, 16 Oct., 11/1. In South Africa … the inhabitants of the sub-continent.
1911. United Empire, June, 389. Rhodesia might have seemed the Never-never-land of the sub-continent, a Cinderella among South African States.
