Britain (name)
Encyclopedia
The name Britain is derived from the Latin
name Britannia
(earlier Brittannia), via Old French
Bretaigne (whence also Modern French Bretagne
) and Middle English
Bretayne, Breteyne. The French form replaced Old English Breoton, Breoten, Bryten, Breten (also Breoton-lond, Breten-lond).
Brittannia or Brittānia was the name used by the Romans from the 1st century BC. Following the Roman conquest of AD 43, it came to be used for the Roman province
, which was restricted to the island of Great Britain
south of Hadrian's wall
. Because of this, Brittannia was increasingly used for Great Britain in particular, which had formerly been known as Albion
.
The form with single -t-, Britannia, is secondary, but can be traced to the Roman period.
Latin Britannia is derived from the travel writings of the ancient Greek
Pytheas
around 320 BC, which described various islands in the North Atlantic as far North as Thule
(possibly Iceland, Faroe, or the Shetland Islands).
Pytheas described Thule as the northernmost part of Πρεττανική (Prettanike) or Βρεττανίαι (Brettaniai), his term for the entire group of islands in the far north-west.
Diodorus in the 1st century BC introduced the form Πρεττανια Prettania, and Strabo
(1.4.2) has Βρεττανία Brettania. Marcian of Heraclea
in his Periplus maris exteri describes αἱ Πρεττανικαὶ νῆσοι "the Prettanic Isles".
Stephanus of Byzantium
glosses Ἀλβίων Albion as νῆσος Πρεττανική, Μαρκιανὸς ἐν περίπλῳ αὐτῆς. τὸ ἐθνικὸν Ἀλβιώνιος ("the Pretannic island, according to Marcian in his periplus; the Albionian people" Ethnica 69.16).
The inhabitants of the islands were called the Πρεττανοι (Priteni or Pretani). The shift from the "P" of Pretannia to the "B" of Britannia
by the Romans occurred during the time of Julius Caesar
. By the 1st century BC Britannia was being used to refer to Great Britain specifically, due to the Roman conquest
and the subsequent establishment of the Roman province of Britannia
, which eventually came to encompass the part of the island south of Caledonia
(roughly, Scotland
).
Priteni is the source of the Welsh language
term Prydain
, Britain, which has the same source as the Goidelic
term Cruithne used to refer to the early Brythonic
-speaking inhabitants of Ireland and the north of Scotland
. The latter were later called Picts
or Caledonians
by the Romans
.
The name Britons for the inhabitants of Great Britain is a loan from Old French
bretun, the term for the people and language of Brittany
, ultimately via Latin from the Βρίττωνες of Procopius
, introduced in Middle English
as brutons in the late 13th century. Brittia
appears as a name for Great Britain in Procopius
, reportedly used by the 6th-century population of what is now the Netherlands
.
The Latin term (Bede
has Brittania) is loaned into Old English by Alfred the Great
as bryttania. The 9th-century Historia Brittonum gives an origin myth
involving Brutus of Troy
.
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
name Britannia
Britannia
Britannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a female personification of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Great Britain. However, by the...
(earlier Brittannia), via Old French
Old French
Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...
Bretaigne (whence also Modern French Bretagne
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
) and Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
Bretayne, Breteyne. The French form replaced Old English Breoton, Breoten, Bryten, Breten (also Breoton-lond, Breten-lond).
Brittannia or Brittānia was the name used by the Romans from the 1st century BC. Following the Roman conquest of AD 43, it came to be used for the Roman province
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
, which was restricted to the island of Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
south of Hadrian's wall
Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification in Roman Britain. Begun in AD 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the first of two fortifications built across Great Britain, the second being the Antonine Wall, lesser known of the two because its physical remains are less evident today.The...
. Because of this, Brittannia was increasingly used for Great Britain in particular, which had formerly been known as Albion
Albion
Albion is the oldest known name of the island of Great Britain. Today, it is still sometimes used poetically to refer to the island or England in particular. It is also the basis of the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland, Alba...
.
The form with single -t-, Britannia, is secondary, but can be traced to the Roman period.
Latin Britannia is derived from the travel writings of the ancient Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
Pytheas
Pytheas
Pytheas of Massalia or Massilia , was a Greek geographer and explorer from the Greek colony, Massalia . He made a voyage of exploration to northwestern Europe at about 325 BC. He travelled around and visited a considerable part of Great Britain...
around 320 BC, which described various islands in the North Atlantic as far North as Thule
Thule
Thule Greek: Θούλη, Thoulē), also spelled Thula, Thila, or Thyïlea, is, in classical European literature and maps, a region in the far north. Though often considered to be an island in antiquity, modern interpretations of what was meant by Thule often identify it as Norway. Other interpretations...
(possibly Iceland, Faroe, or the Shetland Islands).
Pytheas described Thule as the northernmost part of Πρεττανική (Prettanike) or Βρεττανίαι (Brettaniai), his term for the entire group of islands in the far north-west.
Diodorus in the 1st century BC introduced the form Πρεττανια Prettania, and Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
(1.4.2) has Βρεττανία Brettania. Marcian of Heraclea
Marcian of Heraclea
Marcian of Heraclea was a minor Greek geographer of Late Antiquity .His surviving works are:*Periplus maris externi, ed. Müller ,515-562....
in his Periplus maris exteri describes αἱ Πρεττανικαὶ νῆσοι "the Prettanic Isles".
Stephanus of Byzantium
Stephanus of Byzantium
Stephen of Byzantium, also known as Stephanus Byzantinus , was the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled Ethnica...
glosses Ἀλβίων Albion as νῆσος Πρεττανική, Μαρκιανὸς ἐν περίπλῳ αὐτῆς. τὸ ἐθνικὸν Ἀλβιώνιος ("the Pretannic island, according to Marcian in his periplus; the Albionian people" Ethnica 69.16).
The inhabitants of the islands were called the Πρεττανοι (Priteni or Pretani). The shift from the "P" of Pretannia to the "B" of Britannia
Britannia
Britannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a female personification of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Great Britain. However, by the...
by the Romans occurred during the time of Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
. By the 1st century BC Britannia was being used to refer to Great Britain specifically, due to the Roman conquest
Roman conquest of Britain
The Roman conquest of Britain was a gradual process, beginning effectively in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, whose general Aulus Plautius served as first governor of Britannia. Great Britain had already frequently been the target of invasions, planned and actual, by forces of the Roman Republic and...
and the subsequent establishment of the Roman province of Britannia
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
, which eventually came to encompass the part of the island south of Caledonia
Caledonia
Caledonia is the Latinised form and name given by the Romans to the land in today's Scotland north of their province of Britannia, beyond the frontier of their empire...
(roughly, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
).
Priteni is the source of the Welsh language
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
term Prydain
Prydain
Prydain is the modern Welsh name for Britain.-Medieval:Prydain is the medieval Welsh term for the island of Britain . More specifically, Prydain may refer to the Brittonic parts of the island; that is, the parts south of Caledonia...
, Britain, which has the same source as the Goidelic
Goidelic languages
The Goidelic languages or Gaelic languages are one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic languages, the other consisting of the Brythonic languages. Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland through the Isle of Man to the north of Scotland...
term Cruithne used to refer to the early Brythonic
Brythonic languages
The Brythonic or Brittonic languages form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family, the other being Goidelic. The name Brythonic was derived by Welsh Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, meaning an indigenous Briton as opposed to an Anglo-Saxon or Gael...
-speaking inhabitants of Ireland and the north of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. The latter were later called Picts
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
or Caledonians
Caledonians
The Caledonians , or Caledonian Confederacy, is a name given by historians to a group of indigenous peoples of what is now Scotland during the Iron Age and Roman eras. The Romans referred to their territory as Caledonia and initially included them as Britons, but later distinguished as the Picts...
by the Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
.
The name Britons for the inhabitants of Great Britain is a loan from Old French
Old French
Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...
bretun, the term for the people and language of Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
, ultimately via Latin from the Βρίττωνες of Procopius
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine scholar from Palestine. Accompanying the general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History...
, introduced in Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
as brutons in the late 13th century. Brittia
Brittia
Brittia according to Procopius was an island he considered to be known to the inhabitants of the Low Countries under Frankish rule , corresponding both to a real island used for burial and a mythological Isle of the Blessed, to which the souls of the dead are transported.Procopius's Brittia lies...
appears as a name for Great Britain in Procopius
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine scholar from Palestine. Accompanying the general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History...
, reportedly used by the 6th-century population of what is now the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
.
The Latin term (Bede
Bede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
has Brittania) is loaned into Old English by Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...
as bryttania. The 9th-century Historia Brittonum gives an origin myth
Origin myth
An origin myth is a myth that purports to describe the origin of some feature of the natural or social world. One type of origin myth is the cosmogonic myth, which describes the creation of the world...
involving Brutus of Troy
Brutus of Troy
Brutus or Brute of Troy is a legendary descendant of the Trojan hero Æneas, known in mediæval British legend as the eponymous founder and first king of Britain...
.
See also
- Alternative words for BritishAlternative words for BritishAlternative names for the British include nicknames and terms, including affectionate ones, neutral ones, and derogatory ones to describe the British people and more specifically English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish/Irish people.- Ang Moh :"Ang Moh" is a term to describe British and other...
- British Isles (terminology)British Isles (terminology)Various terms are used to describe the different geographical and political areas of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, and surrounding islands. The terminology is often a source of confusion, partly owing to the similarity between some of the actual words used, but also because they are often...
- BrittanyBrittanyBrittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
- PrydainPrydainPrydain is the modern Welsh name for Britain.-Medieval:Prydain is the medieval Welsh term for the island of Britain . More specifically, Prydain may refer to the Brittonic parts of the island; that is, the parts south of Caledonia...
- CruthinCruthinThe Cruthin were a people of early Ireland, who occupied parts of Counties Down, Antrim and Londonderry in the early medieval period....