What does the word britain come from - Word и Excel - помощь в работе с программами

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The name Britain originates from the Common Brittonic term *Pritanī and is one of the oldest known names for Great Britain, an island off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The terms Briton and British, similarly derived, refer to its inhabitants and, to varying extents, the smaller islands in the vicinity. «British Isles» is the only ancient name for these islands to survive in general usage.

Etymology[edit]

«Britain» comes from Latin: Britannia~Brittania, via Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Breteyne, possibly influenced by Old English Bryten(lond), probably also from Latin Brittania, ultimately an adaptation of the Common Brittonic name for the island, *Pritanī.^[1]^[2]

The earliest written reference to the British Isles derives from the works of the Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia; later Greek writers such as Diodorus of Sicily and Strabo who quote Pytheas’ use of variants such as Πρεττανική (Prettanikē), «The Britannic [land, island]», and nēsoi brettaniai, «Britannic islands», with *Pretani being a Celtic word that might mean «the painted ones» or «the tattooed folk», referring to body decoration (see below).^[3]

The modern Welsh name for the island is (Ynys) Prydain. This may demonstrate that the original Common Brittonic form had initial P- not B- (which would give **Brydain) and -t- not -tt- (else **Prythain). This may be explained as containing a stem *prit- (Welsh pryd, Old Irish cruith; < Proto-Celtic *kwrit-), meaning «shape, form», combined with an adjectival suffix. This leaves us with *Pritanī.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]

History[edit]

Written record[edit]

The first known written use of the word was an ancient Greek transliteration of the original P-Celtic term. It is believed to have appeared within a periplus written in about 325 BC by the geographer and explorer Pytheas of Massalia, but no copies of this work survive. The earliest existing records of the word are quotations of the periplus by later authors, such as those within Diodorus of Sicily’s history (c. 60 BC to 30 BC), Strabo’s Geographica (c. 7 BC to AD 19) and Pliny’s Natural History (AD 77).^[10] According to Strabo, Pytheas referred to Britain as Bretannikē, which is treated a feminine noun.^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14] Although technically an adjective (the Britannic or British) it may have been a case of noun ellipsis, a common mechanism in ancient Greek. This term along with other relevant ones, subsequently appeared inter alia in the following works:

Pliny referred to the main island as Britannia, with Britanniae describing the island group.^[15]^[16]
Catullus also used the plural Britanniae in his Carmina.^[17]^[18]
Avienius used insula Albionum in his Ora Maritima.^[19]
Orosius used the plural Britanniae to refer to the islands and Britanni to refer to the people thereof.^[20]
Diodorus referred to Great Britain as Prettanikē nēsos and its inhabitants as Prettanoi.^[21]^[22]
Ptolemy, in his Almagest, used Brettania and Brettanikai nēsoi to refer to the island group and the terms megale Brettania (Great Britain) and mikra Brettania (little Britain) for the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, respectively.^[23] However, in his Geography, he referred to both Alwion (Great Britain) and Iwernia (Ireland) as a nēsos Bretanikē, or British island.^[24]
Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, described the island group as αί Πρεττανικαί νήσοι (the Prettanic Isles).^[25]
Stephanus of Byzantium used the term Ἀλβίων (Albion) to refer to the island, and Ἀλβιώνιοι (Albionioi) to refer to its people.^[26]
Pseudo-Aristotle used nēsoi Brettanikai, Albion and Ierne to refer to the island group, Great Britain, and Ireland, respectively.^[27]
Procopius, in the 6th century AD, used the terms Brittia and Brettania though he considered them to be different islands, the former being located between the latter and Thule. Moreover, according to him on Brittia lived three different nations, the homonymous Brittones (Britons), the Angiloi (English) and the Phrissones (Frisians).^[28]^[29]

As seen above, the original spelling of the term is disputed. Ancient manuscripts alternated between the use of the P- and the B-, and many linguists believe Pytheas’s original manuscript used P- (Prettania) rather than B-. Although B- is more common in these manuscripts, many modern authors quote the Greek or Latin with a P- and attribute the B- to changes by the Romans in the time of Julius Caesar;^[30] the relevant, attested sometimes later, change of the spelling of the word(s) in Greek, as is also sometimes done in modern Greek, from being written with a double tau to being written with a double nu, is likewise also explained by Roman influence, from the aforementioned change in the spelling in Latin.^[31] For example, linguist Karl Schmidt states that the «name of the island was originally transmitted as Πρεττανία (with Π instead of Β) … as is confirmed by its etymology».^[32]

According to Barry Cunliffe:

It is quite probable that the description of Britain given by the Greek writer Diodorus Siculus in the first century BC derives wholly or largely from Pytheas. What is of particular interest is that he calls the island «Pretannia» (Greek «Prettanikē»), that is «the island of the Pretani, or Priteni». «Pretani» is a Celtic word that probably means «the painted ones» or «the tattooed folk», referring to body decoration – a reminder of Caesar’s observations of woad-painted barbarians. In all probability the word «Pretani» is an ethnonym (the name by which the people knew themselves), but it remains an outside possibility that it was their continental neighbours who described them thus to the Greek explorers.^[33]

Roman period[edit]

Following Julius Caesar’s expeditions to the island in 55 and 54 BC, Brit(t)an(n)ia was predominantly used to refer simply to the island of Great Britain^{[citation needed]}. After the Roman conquest under the Emperor Claudius in AD 43, it came to be used to refer to the Roman province of Britain (later two provinces), which at one stage consisted of part of the island of Great Britain south of Hadrian’s wall.^[34]

Medieval[edit]

In Old English or Anglo-Saxon, the Graeco-Latin term referring to Britain entered in the form of Bryttania, as attested by Alfred the Great’s translation of Orosius’ Seven Books of History Against the Pagans.^[35]

The Latin name Britannia re-entered the language through the Old French Bretaigne. The use of Britons for the inhabitants of Great Britain is derived from the Old French bretun, the term for the people and language of Brittany, itself derived from Latin and Greek, e.g. the Βρίττωνες of Procopius.^[28] It was introduced into Middle English as brutons in the late 13th century.^[36]

Modern usage[edit]

There is much conflation of the terms United Kingdom, Great Britain, Britain, and England. In many ways accepted usage allows some of these to overlap, but some common usages are incorrect.

The term Britain is widely used as a common name for the sovereign state of the United Kingdom, or UK for short. The United Kingdom includes three countries on the largest island, which can be called the island of Britain or Great Britain: these are England, Scotland and Wales. However the United Kingdom also includes Northern Ireland on the neighbouring island of Ireland, the remainder of which is not part of the United Kingdom. England is not synonymous with Britain, Great Britain, or United Kingdom.

The classical writer, Ptolemy, referred to the larger island as great Britain (megale Bretannia) and to Ireland as little Britain (mikra Brettania) in his work, Almagest (147–148 AD).^[37] In his later work, Geography (c. 150 AD), he gave these islands the names^[38] Ἀλουίωνος (Alwiōnos), Ἰουερνίας (Iwernias), and Mona (the Isle of Anglesey), suggesting these may have been native names of the individual islands not known to him at the time of writing Almagest.^[39] The name Albion appears to have fallen out of use sometime after the Roman conquest of Great Britain, after which Britain became the more commonplace name for the island called Great Britain.^[9]

After the Anglo-Saxon period, Britain was used as a historical term only. Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudohistorical Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136) refers to the
island of Great Britain as Britannia major («Greater Britain»), to distinguish it from Britannia minor («Lesser Britain»), the continental region which approximates to modern Brittany, which had been settled in the fifth and sixth centuries by Celtic migrants from the British Isles.^[40] The term Great Britain was first used officially in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between Cecily the daughter of Edward IV of England, and James the son of James III of Scotland, which described it as «this Nobill Isle, callit Gret Britanee». It was used again in 1603, when King James VI and I styled himself «King of Great Britain» on his coinage.^[41]

The term Great Britain later served to distinguish the large island of Britain from the French region of Brittany (in French Grande-Bretagne and Bretagne respectively). With the Acts of Union 1707 it became the official name of the new state created by the union of the Kingdom of England (which then included Wales) with the Kingdom of Scotland, forming the Kingdom of Great Britain.^[42] In 1801, the name of the country was changed to United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, recognising that Ireland had ceased to be a distinct kingdom and, with the Acts of Union 1800, had become incorporated into the union. After Irish independence in the early 20th century, the name was changed to United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which is still the official name. In contemporary usage therefore, Great Britain, while synonymous with the island of Britain, and capable of being used to refer politically to England, Scotland and Wales in combination, is sometimes used as a loose synonym for the United Kingdom as a whole. For example, the term Team GB and Great Britain were used to refer to the United Kingdom’s Olympic team in 2012 although this included Northern Ireland. The usage ‘GBR’ in this context is determined by the International Olympic Committee (see List of IOC country codes) which accords with the international standard ISO 3166. The internet country code, «.uk» is an anomaly, being the only Country code top-level domain that does not follow ISO 3166.

Notes[edit]

^ «Britain». Online Etymology Dictionary.
^ Chadwick, Hector Munro, Early Scotland: The Picts, the Scots and the Welsh of Southern Scotland, Cambridge University Press, 1949 (2013 reprint), p. 68
^ Cunliffe, Barry (2012). Britain Begins. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 4.
^ Chadwick 1949, pp. 66–80.
^ Maier 1997, p. 230.
^ Ó Cróinín 2005, p. 213
^ Dunbavin 1998, p. 3.
^ Oman, Charles (1910), «England Before the Norman Conquest», in Oman, Charles; Chadwick, William (eds.), A History of England, vol. I, New York; London: GP Putnam’s Sons; Methuen & Co, pp. 15–16, The corresponding form used by the Brythonic ‘P Celts’ would be Priten … Since therefore he visited the Pretanic and not the Kuertanic Isle, he must have heard its name, when he visited its southern shores, from Brythonic and not from Goidelic inhabitants.
^ ^a ^b Snyder, Christopher A. (2003). The Britons. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-22260-X.
^ Book I.4.2–4, Book II.3.5, Book III.2.11 and 4.4, Book IV.2.1, Book IV.4.1, Book IV.5.5, Book VII.3.1
^ Βρεττανική. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project
^ Strabo’s Geography Book I. Chapter IV. Section 2 Greek text and English translation at the Perseus Project.
^ Strabo’s Geography Book IV. Chapter II. Section 1 Greek text and English translation at the Perseus Project.
^ Strabo’s Geography Book IV. Chapter IV. Section 1 Greek text and English translation at the Perseus Project.
^ Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia Book IV. Chapter XLI
Latin text and
English translation
at the Perseus Project.
^ Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, lemma Britanni II.A at the Perseus Project.
^ Gaius Valerius Catullus’ Carmina Poem 29, verse 20,
Latin text and
English translation
at the Perseus Project. See also Latin text and its English translation side by side at Wikisource.
^ Gaius Valerius Catullus’ Carmina Poem 45, verse 22, Latin text and
English translation
at the Perseus Project. See also Latin text and its English translation side by side at Wikisource.
^ Avienius’ Ora Maritima, verses 111–112, i.e. eamque late gens Hiernorum colit; propinqua rursus insula Albionum patet.
^ Orosius, Histories against the Pagans, VII. 40.4 Latin text at attalus.org.
^
Diodorus Siculus’ Bibliotheca Historica Book V. Chapter XXI. Section 1
Greek text at the Perseus Project.
^ Diodorus Siculus’ Bibliotheca Historica Book V. Chapter XXI. Section 2
Greek text at the Perseus Project.
^ Claudius Ptolemy (1898). «Ἕκθεσις τῶν κατὰ παράλληλον ἰδιωμάτων: κβ’, κε’«. In Heiberg, J.L. (ed.). Claudii Ptolemaei Opera quae exstant omnia (PDF). Vol. 1 Syntaxis Mathematica. Leipzig: in aedibus B.G.Teubneri. pp. 112–113.
^ Claudius Ptolemy (1843). «index of book II». In Nobbe, Carolus Fridericus Augustus (ed.). Claudii Ptolemaei Geographia (PDF). Vol. 1. Leipzig: sumptibus et typis Caroli Tauchnitii. p. 59.
^ Marcianus Heracleensis; Müller, Karl Otfried; et al. (1855). «Periplus Maris Exteri, Liber Prior, Prooemium». In Firmin Didot, Ambrosio (ed.). Geographi Graeci Minores. Vol. 1. Paris. pp. 516–517. Greek text and Latin Translation thereof archived at the Internet Archive.
^ Ethnika 69.16, i.e. Stephanus Byzantinus’ Ethnika (kat’epitomen), lemma Ἀλβίων Meineke, Augustus, ed. (1849). Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorvm quae svpersvnt. Vol. 1. Berlin: Impensis G. Reimeri. p. 69.
^ Greek «… ἐν τούτῳ γε μὴν νῆσοι μέγιστοι τυγχάνουσιν οὖσαι δύο, Βρεττανικαὶ λεγόμεναι, Ἀλβίων καὶ Ἰέρνη, …», transliteration «… en toutoi ge men nesoi megistoi tynchanousin ousai dyo, Brettanikai legomenai, Albion kai Ierne, …», translation «… There are two very large islands in it, called the British Isles, Albion and Ierne; …»; Aristotle (1955). «On the Cosmos». On Sophistical Refutations. On Coming-to-be and Passing Away. On the Cosmos. D. J. Furley (trans.). William Heinemann LTD, Harvard University Press. 393b pp. 360–361 – via Internet Archive.
^ ^a ^b Procopius (1833). «De Bello Gotthico, IV, 20». In Dindorfius, Guilielmus; Niebuhrius, B.G. (eds.). Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae. Vol. Pars II Volumen II (Impensis Ed. Weberis ed.). Bonnae. pp. 559–580.
^ Smith, William, ed. (1854). «BRITANNICAE INSULAE or BRITANNIA». Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, illustrated by numerous engravings on wood. London: Walton and Maberly; John Murray. pp. 559–560. Available online at the Perseus Project.
^ Rhys, John (July–October 1891). «Certain National Names of the Aborigines of the British Isles: Sixth Rhind Lecture». The Scottish Review. XVIII: 120–143.
^ lemma Βρετανία; Babiniotis, Georgios. Dictionary of Modern Greek. Athens: Lexicology Centre.
^ Schmidt 1993, p. 68
^ Cunliffe, Barry (2012). Britain Begins. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-19-967945-4.
^ Snyder, Christopher A. (2003). The Britons. Blackwell Publishing. p. 12. ISBN 0-631-22260-X.
^ Sedgefield, Walter John (1928). An Anglo-Saxon Verse-Book. Manchester University Press. p. 292.
^ OED, s.v. «Briton».
^ Claudius Ptolemy (1898). «Ἕκθεσις τῶν κατὰ παράλληλον ἰδιωμάτων: κβ’,κε’«. In Heiberg, J.L. (ed.). Claudii Ptolemaei Opera quae exstant omnia (PDF). Vol. 1 Syntaxis Mathematica. Leipzig: in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. pp. 112–113.
^ Claudius Ptolemy (1843). «Book II, Prooemium and chapter β’, paragraph 12». In Nobbe, Carolus Fridericus Augustus (ed.). Claudii Ptolemaei Geographia (PDF). Vol. 1. Leipzig: sumptibus et typis Caroli Tauchnitii. pp. 59, 67.
^ Freeman, Philip (2001). Ireland and the classical world. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. pp. 67–68. ISBN 0-292-72518-3.
^ «Is Great Britain really a ‘small island’?». BBC News. 14 September 2013.
^ Jack, Sybil (2004). «‘A Pattern for a King’s Inauguration’: The Coronation of James I in England» (PDF). Parergon. 21 (2): 67–91. doi:10.1353/pgn.2004.0068. S2CID 144654775.
^ «After the political union of England and Scotland in 1707, the nation’s official name became ‘Great Britain'», The American Pageant, Volume 1, Cengage Learning (2012)

References[edit]

Fife, James (1993). «Introduction». In Ball, Martin J; Fife, James (eds.). The Celtic Languages. Routledge Language Family Descriptions. Routledge. pp. 3–25.
Schmidt, Karl Horst (1993), «Insular Celtic: P and Q Celtic», in Ball, Martin J; Fife, James (eds.), The Celtic Languages, Routledge Language Family Descriptions, Routledge, pp. 64–99

Look up Britain in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Further reading[edit]

Koch, John T. «New Thoughts on Albion, Iernē, and the Pretanic Isles (Part One).» Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium 6 (1986): 1–28. www.jstor.org/stable/20557171.

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23 December 2017

Britain is an ancient name. Where does it come from?

What’s in a name?

Place names are more complex than they first appear. They can be geographical expressions which allow people to orient themselves physically and mentally in their surroundings. They can be mental ‘boxes’ that enable people to think about space and what happens within them or between them. Identity is bound up with place names and who is allowed to name what often shows how power is structured and negotiated between people, communities and identities. Creating place names can be collaborative, they can be a form of domination.

The history of the creation and use of the names of Britain, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and England reflect the nuanced meaning of names. This Briefing is part of a series that will explore all these shared and inextricably linked histories, changing terminologies and the still unresolved and politically charged question of what to call all ‘these islands’ together.

The Island of the Painted People?

The earliest recorded place names for the group of islands off the north east European coast are in the works of classical Greek and Roman authors. These islands were on the very far fringes of the known Mediterranean world; where the barbarians’ barbarians lived, a place of mist and mysteries; full of great potential wealth, fantastical creatures and strange peoples. Classical works of geography and history were meant to edify and entertain as much as they were there to inform.

The first report of islands in the far west which can be associated with Britain and Ireland are to be found in Herodotus, the Greek father of history, in the fifth century BCE. Herodotus wrote of islands known as the Cassiterides but of which he had no information beyond their name.^{1 Herodotus, The Histories, Bk3.115. Cassiterides translates as ‘Tin Islands from the Greek word for tin — kassiteros.}

We owe the name of Britain to Pytheas of Massalia, a Greek explorer from present-day Marseille, who travelled to Britain in around 325BCE and recorded the local names of the places he visited. Unfortunately, Pytheas’s writings do not survive but they were widely used as a source by other ancient but desk-bound geographers such as the first-century BCE Greek author Diodorus Siculus who recorded one of the islands names as ‘Pretannike’.^{2 Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, Bk5.21. Greek Prettanike.}In classical Greek and Latin texts, the ‘p’ often turned to a ‘b’ becoming ‘Britannia’.^{3 Julius Caesar is the earliest recorded writer to use the ‘b’ spelling during his own account of his expeditions to Britain in 55 and 54 BCE. Caesar, The Gallic Wars, Bk4.20-37; Bk5.2-24. These invasions were important propaganda exercises launched with the intention of further boosting Caesar’s prestige in Rome for subduing peoples on the very far edge of the known world.} But the original Greek p-spelling was a rendition of a local Celtic name for either a people living on the island or for the land itself, exactly what is unclear. ‘Pretani’, from which it came from, was a Celtic word that most likely meant ‘the painted people’.^{4 The Celtic languages on these islands are split into two separate but related families: P-Celtic (Welsh, Cornish and Breton) & Q-Celtic (Irish, Scots Gaelic & Manx). Pretani comes from the P-Celtic line and its longevity can be seen in the modern Welsh word for Britain, Prydain.}

Mysterious Albion

‘Albion’ was another name recorded in the classical sources for the island we know as Britain. ‘Albion’ probably predates ‘Pretannia’. Indeed, ‘Albion’ may come from a ‘celticisation’ of a word used for these islands prior to the arrival of Celtic-speaking peoples and most likely derives from the Indo-European root word for hill or hilly, ‘alb-’ ‘albho-‘ for white, probably referring to the white chalk cliffs on Britain’s southern shore.^{5 Christopher A. Snyder, The Britons (Oxford, 2003), pp. 12-13.} Other similarly derived place names include the Alps, Albania, and the Apennines, lending credence to the hill theory though it is not conclusive. Although Albion was often used by classical writers (and others since) as a rhetorical flourish, Britannia won out in general usage probably because after the beginning Roman conquest in 43CE, the province on the island was named ‘Britannia’.

Some examples of classical writers:

• Strabo (1st century BCE): “Brettanike” ^{6 Strabo, Geography, Bk1.4.3, Bk4.2.1; Bk.4.4.1. Brettanike. Strabo had a very low opinion of Pytheas, calling him an “archfalsifier” (pseudistatos).}

• Pliny the Elder (1st century CE): “Britannia insula” ^{7 Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Bk4.102. “Ex adverso huius situs Britannia insula clara Graecis nostrisque monimentis”}

• Marcian of Heraclea (4th century CE): “the Prettanic Islands” ^{8 Marcian of Heraclea, Periplus Maris Exteri, Bk1. Proeemium; Bk1.8, Bk2.Proeemium, Bk2.24, Bk2.27, Bk2.40, Bk2. 41-46. Hai Prettanikai nesoi.}

What made Britain ‘Great’?

The word ‘Great’ becoming attached to ‘Britain’ comes from medieval practice and not the classical authors. This became a common practice in the twelfth century to distinguish the island of Britannia maior (Greater Britain) from Britannia minor (Lesser Britain), the other medieval Britain Brittany.^{9 David N. Dumville, ‘‘Celtic’ visions of England’ in Andrew Galloway (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Culture (Cambridge, 2011), p. 126.} Brittany gained its name from the British migrants who moved there in the post-Roman period.

Brutus of Troy and Britain

The twelfth century was a period of great historical introspection with numerous writers reflecting on the past of Britain and its various peoples’ pasts. The most influential contribution to this debate was Geoffrey of Monmouth, one of the most successful mytho-historians, with his History of the Kings of Britain.^{10 Geoffrey of Monmouth, The history of the kings of Britain: an edition and translation of De Gestis Britonum (Historia Regum Britanniae), M.D. Reeve (ed.) and N. Wright (trans.), (Woodbridge, 2007). Geoffrey of Monmouth distinguished between Britannia Insula or Britannia meaning Britain and Britannia minor, lesser Britain for Brittany, 92.88, 96.235, 97.245} Alongside his famed contribution to what became Arthurian legend, Geoffrey provided a popular origin story for the name ‘Britain’. Geoffrey wrote of a ‘Brutus of Troy’, a grandson of Aeneas, a Trojan hero and ancestor of the Roman people, who came to Albion, slew the giants who lived here and founded a kingdom, which took its name from him, Britain. Although this tale lacked any historical basis, this was the most popularly believed explanation until well into the sixteenth century at least.^{11 Barry Cunliffe, Britain Begins (Oxford, 2013), pp. 8-16.}

From Geographical Expression to Political Reality

The accession of James VI of Scotland to the English and Irish thrones in 1603 created the impetus for widespread use of ‘Great Britain’ as both a geographical expression and as a political entity. England and Scotland remained separate kingdoms but James VI and (now) I decided that at least he could combine the two together in his title, so called himself ‘King of Great Britain’.^{12 James VI & I, ‘By the King. A proclamation concerning the Kings Majesties Stile, of King of Great Britaine, & C. [Westminster 20 October 1604]’ in J.F. Larkin & P.L Hughes (eds.), Stuart Royal Proclamations. Vol. 1, Royal proclamations of King James I, 1603-1625 (Oxford, 1973), no. 45; Jenny Wormald, ‘James VI and I (1566-1625)’, Oxford Dictionary of national biography (Oxford, 2004).} The use of ‘Great Britain’ to refer to the whole island of Britain, was strengthened by the Act of Union (1707), which created a new united ‘Kingdom of Great Britain’.^{13 Article I of the Act of Union (1707)} The ‘Kingdom of Great Britain’ became the ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland’ after the Act of Union (1801) between ‘Great Britain’ and the ‘Kingdom of Ireland’.^{14 First Article of the Union with Ireland Act (1800)} As with many other states, a term that had enjoyed a largely literary, aspirational and geographic expression, now became a ‘political’ reality. After the Irish Free State’s creation in 1922, the name changed to the ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’. This kept the distinction between what was geographically ‘Great Britain’ and ‘Northern Ireland’ but which remained one political union.

The ever-changing meaning of Britain

Britain may be an ancient name but its meaning has changed over time for the inhabitants and newcomers to these islands. This continuous renewal and reinterpretation of the meaning and understanding of the name is a major reason for its survival. The name of Britain has been a resource from which the various peoples have used to make and remake new, diverse and dynamic identities over centuries of lived history. It has survived because it has proved useful. However, this constant reuse of a name has preserved an ancient Celtic dialectal name transliterated by an ancient Greek explorer from the south of France over two millennia ago.

NOTES

Herodotus, The Histories, Bk3.115. Cassiterides translates as ‘Tin Islands from the Greek word for tin — kassiteros.
Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, Bk5.21. Greek Prettanike.
Julius Caesar is the earliest recorded writer to use the ‘b’ spelling during his own account of his expeditions to Britain in 55 and 54 BCE. Caesar, The Gallic Wars, Bk4.20-37; Bk5.2-24. These invasions were important propaganda exercises launched with the intention of further boosting Caesar’s prestige in Rome for subduing peoples on the very far edge of the known world.
The Celtic languages on these islands are split into two separate but related families: P-Celtic (Welsh, Cornish and Breton) & Q-Celtic (Irish, Scots Gaelic & Manx). Pretani comes from the P-Celtic line and its longevity can be seen in the modern Welsh word for Britain, Prydain.
Christopher A. Snyder, The Britons (Oxford, 2003), pp. 12-13.
Strabo, Geography, Bk1.4.3, Bk4.2.1; Bk.4.4.1. Brettanike. Strabo had a very low opinion of Pytheas, calling him an “archfalsifier” (pseudistatos).
Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Bk4.102. “Ex adverso huius situs Britannia insula clara Graecis nostrisque monimentis”
Marcian of Heraclea, Periplus Maris Exteri, Bk1. Proeemium; Bk1.8, Bk2.Proeemium, Bk2.24, Bk2.27, Bk2.40, Bk2. 41-46. Hai Prettanikai nesoi.
David N. Dumville, ‘‘Celtic’ visions of England’ in Andrew Galloway (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Culture (Cambridge, 2011), p. 126.
Geoffrey of Monmouth, The history of the kings of Britain: an edition and translation of De Gestis Britonum (Historia Regum Britanniae), M.D. Reeve (ed.) and N. Wright (trans.), (Woodbridge, 2007). Geoffrey of Monmouth distinguished between Britannia Insula or Britannia meaning Britain and Britannia minor, lesser Britain for Brittany, 92.88, 96.235, 97.245
Barry Cunliffe, Britain Begins (Oxford, 2013), pp. 8-16.
James VI & I, ‘By the King. A proclamation concerning the Kings Majesties Stile, of King of Great Britaine, & C. [Westminster 20 October 1604]’ in J.F. Larkin & P.L Hughes (eds.), Stuart Royal Proclamations. Vol. 1, Royal proclamations of King James I, 1603-1625 (Oxford, 1973), no. 45; Jenny Wormald, ‘James VI and I (1566-1625)’, Oxford Dictionary of national biography (Oxford, 2004).
Article I of the Act of Union (1707)
First Article of the Union with Ireland Act (1800)

Suggested Additional Reading

Linda Colley, Britons: forging the nation (rev. ed. London, 2009).

Linda Colley, Acts of Union and Disunion (London 2014).

Barry Cunliffe, The extraordinary voyage of Pytheas the Greek (London, 2002).

Barry Cunliffe, Britain Begins (Oxford, 2013).

Christopher A. Snyder, The Britons (Oxford, 2003).

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«England» — this name became known in the 1707th century AD and is associated with the Germanic tribe of Angles, who, together with the Saxons in the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries, captured the islands of the Britons. Great Britain dates back to XNUMX from the unification of the English and Scottish kingdoms under the auspices of a single monarchy.
Comes from lat. Britannia (Brittania) «Britain», then from the ethnonym Britto «Britt», then from the Celtic.

What is included in the United Kingdom?

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, known for short as the United Kingdom or Great Britain, is made up of four «historic countries»: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

What is the difference between Britain and England?

The names Britain, Great Britain, the UK, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland mean the same thing. They call the country, which in Russian we most often call Great Britain or simply Britain. England is part of Great Britain, one of the four territories into which it is divided.

What is the full name of the UK?

The full official name of the country is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Territory — 242,495 thousand sq. km.

Where is the Lake District in the UK?

Lake District) is a mountainous region in the North-West of England, in the county of Cumbria. The territory of the historical and cultural region practically coincides with the Cumberland Mountains. The Lake District is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The region is famous for its picturesque mountain and lake landscapes.

Where did the Brits come from?

The first written mention of the Britons, as a separate people, is found in the Anglo-Saxon chronicles of the XNUMXth century, according to these texts, the Britons came from Armorica, a peninsula in France. … The first inhabitants of the island were Britons who came from Armorica. «

How many rivers are the longest in the UK?

Rivers of Great Britain

	River	Length in km
1	Severn	354
2	Thames	346
3	Trent	297
4	Great Ouse	230

What is the flag of Northern Ireland?

The flag consisted of the red cross of St. George (the flag of England) with a six-pointed star (according to the number of counties) superimposed on it, with images of a crown and a «red hand» (the historical symbol of Ulster). The image of the red hand marks Ulster’s connection to Northern Ireland.

Where did the Hanoverian dynasty come from on the English throne?

The House of Hanover was a dynasty of British kings from 1714 to 1901. A branch of the ancient Germanic family of Welfs, which ruled Braunschweig until the beginning of the 1837th century. Until XNUMX, the ruling dynasty (electors, and then kings) of Hanover, which was in personal union with Great Britain, was also the ruling dynasty.

Why Britain and not Great Britain?

Great Britain If you believe the maps of the world, then Great Britain is considered only one island from the entire totality of the British Isles. At the same time, he owns England, Scotland and Wales itself.

Why do England and Great Britain have different flags?

«Union Jack», as the flag of England is also called, is the state flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — the official name of the country. Since it includes England, Scotland and Ireland, therefore, the combination of stripes and colors should reflect these three states.

Who Really Governs Great Britain?

The United Kingdom is an abbreviated name that sounds like the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It consists of four countries: England (England), Scotland (Scotland), Wales (Wales) and Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland).

What are Whigs and Tories?

Whigs (English Whigs) — the old name of the British liberals and created by them in the 1780s. … the Whigs were considered the party of the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie, in contrast to the Tories — the party of the landed aristocracy. The Liberal Party of Great Britain was organized from the Whigs and Pilits in 1859.

When did the United Kingdom come to be called Great Britain?

On May 1, 1707, the Kingdom of Great Britain was created, created by the political union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland in accordance with the Treaty of Union of 1706, which was agreed in the previous year and ratified by the English and Scottish parliaments.

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‘Britain’, ‘Great Britain’ and ‘the United Kingdom’ do not all mean the same thing.

Britain is an island in the North Atlantic, off the coast of western Europe. The island contains the nations of England, Wales, and Scotland. The three nations together form a political entity, Great Britain, which also includes several islands belonging to those nations. ‘Great Britain’ is commonly and conveniently abbreviated to simply ‘Britain’, but both terms are confusingly used in a geographical as well as a political sense.

The nations of Great Britain are part of a sovereign state which includes the province of Northern Ireland. This is the United Kingdom, or ‘UK’ – full name ‘the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’. Each constituent part of the UK has its own form of devolved government, except England. The inhabitants of Britain and the UK should be generally referred to as ‘British’, or specifically from their UK country of origin – eg ‘Welsh’. To refer to all the inhabitants as ‘English’ or the whole place as ‘England’ can seriously upset people, apart from possibly the English.

So, what does ‘Britain’ mean? Where does the name ‘Britain’ come from?

It is uncertain what Britain was called before the Romans. One theory is that the name derives from the Phoenician baratanic, the land of tin, contracted into B’ratan. The Greeks referred to Cassiterides (tin islands), which possibly meant the whole British Isles, but the location of the Cassiterides is unknown. However, the more accepted explanation seems to be that, in the 4th century BC, the Greeks referred to one of the islands in the archipelago as Pretannike, which came from a Celtic word, Pretani that probably meant ‘painted people’, and the ‘p’ became a ‘b’.

Just to confuse things further, another name for Britain in classical times was Albion, which may stem from a pre-Celtic Indo-European word albho meaning ‘white’, a possible reference to the cliffs along England’s southern coastline. However, the Romans, presumably taking their lead from the Greek Pretannike, called present day England and Wales collectively Britannia – a Roman province, and the name stuck. They could not call it England and Wales, because England and Wales had not been invented – and neither had Scotland. But the Romans never ruled Scotland, or fully conquered it. That might be because they called it Caledonia.

Great Britain was originally called ‘great’ in the sense of ‘greater’ to distinguish it from ‘lesser’ (ie ‘smaller’), or Little Britain’ – Brittany in what is now France – not because its people are in any way superior, or the place much, much nicer than anywhere else. (Though we are and it is, of course…). But, should you read the Roman/Greek writer Ptolemy (not currently on the best seller list), you might find that he also referred to Ireland as Little Britain. See how easy this is?

Great Britain is also the name given to the two kingdoms of England (capital London), including the principality of Wales (capital Cardiff), and Scotland (capital Edinburgh). This dates from the time when King James VI of Scotland also became King James I of England (and Wales) and, being very proud of the fact, wanted to be known as King of Great Britain, the whole island.

Britain the island is the largest of a geographical group of about 6,000 islands, the British Isles. This includes the island of Ireland, which contains the sovereign state of Ireland as well as the UK province of Northern Ireland. To simplify things even more, the British Isles includes three dependencies of the British Crown – the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey (though the latter are physically closer to France than Britain and arguably not part of the British Isles).

To recap, then:

Britain or Great Britain means England, Wales and Scotland.
The United Kingdom means England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The inhabitants of the UK and Britain are called British – or specifically their country of origin (ie English, Welsh, Scottish, or Northern Irish) – but don’t get this wrong.

Then, of course, there’s the tricky business of who the British people really are.

The Roman writer, Tacitus, said:

“Who the first inhabitants of Britain were, whether natives or immigrants, remains obscure; one must remember we are dealing with barbarians.”

The 6th century Byzantine historian Procopius believed that, in addition to English and Frisians, “Britain was inhabited by the souls of the dead who were ferried thither across the Channel and that the climate north of the Roman Wall was so pestilential that only serpents could live there.” (Peter Hunter Blair, ‘An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England’.)

Contrary to propaganda, the British people are hybrids, products of successive waves of invaders – Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxon-Jute-Frisian, Danes, Norse and Norman. Broadly speaking, and tongue in cheek, the Scots were originally from Ireland; the English were from Germany; the Welsh came from England; the Irish came from Spain (maybe) and Scotland. Since the Norman invasion of 1066, they have been joined through the centuries by more folk from Scandinavia, France, Holland, Ireland, the Caribbean, Africa, India, Pakistan, China, Poland etc etc. It’s quite straightforward…

Find more information about British people.

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#1

Hello. I have some etymological questions.

Have it ever occured to you where the most familiar words such as «England» and «Britain» came from?

We know that there are quite a few countries whose names are composed of two parts, the people(the race) and «land». For example, Poland is a land inhabited by Poles, Finland a land inhabited by Finns, Scotland inhabited by Scotts, and so on. But how about «England», does it mean a land inhabited by ….perhaps «Angles»? If that is the case, why do people omit the Saxons?

And how about «Britain»? How does it become the synonym of United Kingdom? Does it derive from «Briton», the celts who lived in nowdays southeastern england before they were conquered by the Romans? If so, why do people group all English, Scotland, Welsh into Britain, while in realiy it only composes only a part of all of them?

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#2

Btw:
Angles were germanic tribe settled in eastern part of the island….
For some reason «Anglik» means Englishman and «Anglia» means England in Polish….
:eek:

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#3

But how about «England», does it mean a land inhabited by ….perhaps «Angles»? If that is the case, why do people omit the Saxons?

Yes, it means land of the Angles. I don´t know why the Saxons and Jutes were «excluded», but including them would have made for a very clumsy name… Perhaps the Angles became/ were dominant? Many other European countries are named after the founding tribe — France, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Estonia etc.

And, yes, Britain comes from the tribe Britons via the Roman name for the province Britannia (which included Wales but not Scotland which the Romans IIRC called Caledonia).

/Vandelay

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#4

Many people call Britain, England anyway, they forget UK or Britain.

Also I was recently watching a documentary on the Celts and was interested to find out that the «Celts» as the Romans called the tribes of gaul, never lived in the British isles. (the romans never called the British natives Celts…)

The spread of the celtic language was because of trade along the atlantic seaboard from northern spain along france and to Britain. Genetically the Welsh and Irish are relatively unrelated to other Europeans…

They are no Celts!

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#5

Originally posted by Vonsson

Genetically the Welsh and Irish are relatively unrelated to other Europeans…

Do you have a source for this? If true, this would mean that the Scots and Bretons also aren’t really ‘Celts’. This despite the fact that all four groups have always been considered to be Celtic in cultural and linguistic terms as they certainly were in religious (the religion of the pre-Roman Britons was essentially the same as the Celtic peoples of Gaul).

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#6

IMO there´s no such thing as «real» Celts — if the Britons, Scots, Irish etc. were culturally and linguistically Celtic, and they were, then who cares about «blood» or genes??? People who do tend to like brown shirts and marching in unison…

In any case Dark Knight I think that some of the studies of Anglo-Saxon genes in England that were discussed earlier also mentioned genetic studies of «Celtic» areas of Britain.

Right now the number of samples taken in DNA and the methods of interpreting the results of DNA analysis are so new that I personally take all these (hyped by the media) DNA studies reported with more than a few grains of salt. At least when they deal on the «micro-scale» of ancient tribes.

Cheers,
Vandelay

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#7

The BBC has a story on the difference between english and welsh.

The genetic map of British isles seemed to indicate that Scottish are not as colsely related to Welsh and Irish as one may have assumed and excepting scotland’s west coast, display much stronger links with English and Norwegians
ie: a largely Teutonic background.

The Celts as a genetic people can only be traced to parts of France, Spain, Switzerland and Austria.

Also I don’t think that being interested in ones genetic makeup is indicitive of ones political or cultural beliefs. The comments that only nazis would talk about genes smack of european political correctness.

Last edited: Jul 30, 2002

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#8

Celt originated as the Greek term for the peoples of central and western Europe. The Byzantines (Anna Comnena) used Kelt interchangably with Frank, in essence as a derogatory term.

As the lands north of the Greek colony of Massilia was populated by «kelts» this term was used as a label for the languages spoken by the Gauls and Britons etc.

Celt is neither a tribal name nor an ethnic autoappellation.

PS.

Britain got its name after Brutus the Trojan who settled in the island 60 years after the fall of Troy…

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#9

Also I don’t think that being interested in ones genetic makeup is indicitive of ones political or cultural beliefs. The comments that only nazis would talk about genes smack of european political correctness.

Allow me to clarify my post:I´m very interested in genetic studies — what I question is whether genes «really» make you a member of an ethnic group or not. Were the Celtic speaking Britons any less Celtic than e.g. the Helvetii? I certainly think not.

To summarize: I find language and culture a much more determinant factor in ethnic grouping than genes. If that´s PC than so be it.

Cheers,
Vandelay

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#10

Originally posted by Vandelay

Allow me to clarify my post:I´m very interested in genetic studies — what I question is whether genes «really» make you a member of an ethnic group or not. Were the Celtic speaking Britons any less Celtic than e.g. the Helvetii? I certainly think not.

In so far as they are both by retrospective definition Celts, no.

To summarize: I find language and culture a much more determinant factor in ethnic grouping than genes. If that´s PC than so be it.

Cheers,
Vandelay

Agreed.

But you must admit that the apparent genetic difference between Western Norwegians and Danes is an intrigueing bit of information.

Last edited: Jul 31, 2002

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#11

But you must admit that the apparent genetic difference between Western Norwegians and Danes is an intrigueing bit of information.

Yes, it is — I find these genetic studies very interesting if somewhat overhyped. So what is the difference between Western Norwegians and Danes then? And are Western Norwegians different from other Norwegians?

The close genetic ties between Icelandics and Irish mitochondrial DNA is also very interesting. Doesn´t change neither the Icelandic nor Irish ethnos, though…

Cheers,
Vandelay

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#12

I’d love to see and Icelanders face when he hears that he is more closely related to an Irish slave than a «mighty viking warrior»

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#13

Vandelay,
the BBC/UCL only tested western Norwegians. They actually made the test in Bergen, the one place in Vestlandet with an historically high rate of immigration from the south and east

Last edited: Jul 31, 2002

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#14

Originally posted by Vandelay

Yes, it means land of the Angles. I don´t know why the Saxons and Jutes were «excluded», but including them would have made for a very clumsy name…

Because Jutland already exists elsewhere, and Sexland would be… let’s just say, not very British in character.

Originally posted by Vandelay

Perhaps the Angles became/ were dominant? Many other European countries are named after the founding tribe — France, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Estonia etc.

I’m pretty sure that Saxons were the dominant tribe (Wessex), at least until the Norman invasion. The fact that Angles inhabited the region of London might have something to do with it, but I’m not sure.

As for Britain, according to mythology, it was named after Brutus, a Trojan refugee who wrested the island (until then called Albion) from the Giants. See here for details.

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Part Time Game Designer

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#15

The Saxons are represented by the counties of Essex, Wessex, Sussex. East West and South Saxons respectively. The angles get East Anglia as one of their places. Apart from that I don’t know why they Angles one the race to name the country.

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#16

Maybe the Angels the first of the three germanic tribes?

As Solmyr writes the Saxon was the most dominant, but that may only have been in the later part.

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#17

My guess is that ‘English’ was the Latin term in the 7th century for the inhabitants of old Roman Britain, and came into use in England with the conversion to Christianity in the south. I have no evidence for that, but is seems likely.

As for Celts, there is a problem here that there were several different sorts of Celts. As far as language goes Welsh, Cornish and Breton belong to one group, and Gaelic (Scots and Irish) belong to another. (They are called P- and Q- Celtic, but I can never remember which way around they are.) For what I can recall current theory is that the pre-Roman inhabitants of Roman Britain were a different group of Celts from those in Caledonia and Hibernia (or their leaders were. The group was called the Belgae, it originated sometime in the 2nd century bc in the rough vicinity of modern day Belguim. They migrated over to Britain c.100BC.

In Scotland the genetics are especially complicated because there are four main genetic groups. The Picts, who no one really knows about. The Britons, mostly in the south-west, remnants of the old Romano-British kingdom of Strathclyde. Irish Celtic from the migrations which led to Dalriada. And finally Norse from the 8th-10th century migrations and colonisations, mostly in the Isles, north and north-east.

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#18

Originally posted by stnylan
My guess is that ‘English’ was the Latin term in the 7th century for the inhabitants of old Roman Britain, and came into use in England with the conversion to Christianity in the south. I have no evidence for that, but is seems likely….

No, I am quite sure that english are from the name on the invading Angles. But have no reall idé why.

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#19

Because Jutland already exists elsewhere, and Sexland would be… let’s just say, not very British in character.

That would be «Saxland» and it already existed, North-Western Germany was known under that name.

FYI, «Britain» comes from the latin «Brittonem» which came from a Celtic name of the Celtic inhabitants of Britain. It was revived by James I in 1604, when he declared himself king of Great Britain.

All the English names for nationalities/countries mentioned here derives from the old local name of the population/founders, with one exception — Finland. Finland in Finnish is Suomi, but «finnr» (Finn) and thus «Finland» was the Old Norse and Swedish name for the land, which was adopted by English.

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#20

Originally posted by Janbalk

No, I am quite sure that english are from the name on the invading Angles. But have no reall idé why.

True. England comes from the Old Germanic name for «land of the Angles» (and «Englisk» meaning Anglic). The term actually applied to all Germanic invaders — the Angles, Saxons and Jutes (actually it also applied to the _language_ group, therefore the Saxons and Jutes were counted in).

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Etymology[edit]

History[edit]

Written record[edit]

Roman period[edit]

Medieval[edit]

Modern usage[edit]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

What is included in the United Kingdom?

What is the difference between Britain and England?

What is the full name of the UK?

Where is the Lake District in the UK?

Where did the Brits come from?

How many rivers are the longest in the UK?

What is the flag of Northern Ireland?

Where did the Hanoverian dynasty come from on the English throne?

Why Britain and not Great Britain?

Why do England and Great Britain have different flags?

Who Really Governs Great Britain?

What are Whigs and Tories?

When did the United Kingdom come to be called Great Britain?

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Part Time Game Designer