Where does the word britain come from

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

1. Herodotus, The Histories, Bk3.115. Cassiterides translates as ‘Tin Islands from the Greek word for tin — kassiteros.
    
2. Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, Bk5.21. Greek Prettanike.
    
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.
    
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.
    
5. Christopher A. Snyder, The Britons (Oxford, 2003), pp. 12-13.
    
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).
    
7. Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Bk4.102. “Ex adverso huius situs Britannia insula clara Graecis nostrisque monimentis”
    
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.
    
9. David N. Dumville, ‘‘Celtic’ visions of England’ in Andrew Galloway (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Culture (Cambridge, 2011), p. 126.
    
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
     
11. Barry Cunliffe, Britain Begins (Oxford, 2013), pp. 8-16.
     
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).
     
13. Article I of the Act of Union (1707)
     
14. 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).