Britains
The word Britain is an informal term used (for brevity or convenience) when referring to; more...
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the island of Great Britain which consists of the constituent countries of England, Scotland and Wales.;
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the "United Kingdom" or the "UK"), a sovereign state (This usage is technically incorrect as the UK covers part of Great Britain's neighbouring island, Ireland).;
sometimes the Roman province called "Britain" or "Britannia".;
The word British generally means belonging to or associated with Britain in one of the first two senses above (i.e. the United Kingdom or the island of Great Britain). However, the term has a range of related usages, as described in this article.
Earliest attested references
Prettaniké – 325 BC (Pytheas);
Britannia – 55 BC (Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico );
Breoton – 855 (OED: cites Old English Chronicle, introduction);
Brittisc – 855 (OED);
Grate Briteigne – 1548 (OED);
British isles – 1550 (in Latin; map of Sebastian Munster cited in British Isles article);
Etymology
Britain
The etymology of the name Britain is thought to derive from a Celtic word, Pritani, "painted people/men", a reference to the island's inhabitants' use of body paint and tattoos. If this is true, there is an interesting parallel with the name Pict, from the Latin word of the same meaning. The modern Welsh name for Britain and the Picts is Prydain. The Goidelic form was Cruithin, showing that the Common Celtic singular form was *qruitanos. The root is presumably that of modern Welsh pryd "shape, form" and Irish cruth.
In 325 BC the Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia visited a group of islands which he called Prettaniké, the principal ones being Albionon (Albion) and Ierne (Erin). The records of this visit date from much more recent times, so there is room for these details to be disputed, but it does seem to attest pre-Roman use of the name by Celtic-speaking inhabitants of the islands.
In keeping with the mediaeval penchant for etymologising country names in terms of eponymous heroes, British historians of the late mediaeval and early modern periods charted the history of the nation from Brutus, a descendant of Aeneas, a hero of the Trojan war, who founded Britain just as Aeneas' descendant Romulus founded Rome, Frankus France, and so forth. The life of Brutus, anglicised as Brute, was recorded in the literary tradition of the Prose Brute. This was accepted as the etymology of Britain well into modern times.
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