What's in a Name?

Blackadder · What's in a Name?

I am on many forums (forii?) and noticed on this one, the same bit of ignorance I've seen on lots of sites. So, let me elucidate once more ...

Great Britain ... is actually a shortened form of Greater Britain. This was because a part of Gaul (France) was called Lesser (Less) Britain ... now Brittany.

When the Romans left Britain in 410, the Saxon Shore (the British East Coast) was under constant attacks from the Saxons. Many Brits fled westward and the Saxons gained a foothold. As they pressured the Brits even more, many Brits fled to Gaul and set up Less Britain as a refuge for their fleeing countrymen. They were bolstered by returning British legionaries after the Battle of Aquiliea and Brittany became a recognised continental colony of Britain.

It was these colonists who termed their homeland Great(er) Britain ... It was picked up on after the Georges came to the Union throne ... and Great Britain was the accepted name (apart from the United Kingdom) thereafter.

Pragmatic Pict

Also the term Briton so commonly applied by the media to people even those who aren't even born here just citizens originates from Roman times(probably the Romans).
The original official definition is simple- any human being who speaks any of the brythonic languages

Blackadder

*sighing in exasperation.

Origin of the term British Isles
In classical times, The prefix "Brit-" implied the Cruithne peoples and was used when describing the whole archipelago of islands. Native sources used oceani insulae meaning "islands of the ocean" or insularum meaning "islands".The phrase British Isles only appears in the English language from the 17th Century onwards but has gained common usage within the United Kingdom. From the 18th century the term Celt has been used to identify speakers of Celtic languages, including the Cruithne (speakers of Brythonic languages), the Gaels (speakers of Goidelic languages), and the speakers of the Continental Celtic languages (Gauls and Celtiberians).
The inhabitants of Great Britain in classical times were called the Priteni or Pretani by classical writers of geographies, who named it after these inhabitants, using a transliteration into their own language such as Latin (e.g. Bretannae) or Greek (e.g. Βρηττανων). Irene was the word they used for the island of Ireland, after the Érainn of its southern coasts.
Throughout Book 4 of his Geography, Strabo is consistent in spelling the island Britain (transliterated) as Prettanikee; he uses the terms Prettans or Brettans loosely to refer to the islands as a group - a common generalisation used by classical geographers. For example, in Geography 2.1.18, …οι νοτιωτατοι των Βρηττανων βορηιοτηροι τουτον ηισιν (…the most southern of the Brettans are further north than this). He was writing around AD 10, although the earliest surviving copy of his work dates from the 6th century.
Pliny the Elder writing around AD 70 uses a Latin version of the same terminology in section 4.102 of his Naturalis Historia. He writes of Great Britain: Albion ipsi nomen fuit, cum Britanniae vocarentur omnes de quibus mox paulo dicemus. (Albion was its own name, when all [the islands] were called the Britannias). In the following section, 4.103, Pliny enumerates the islands he considers to make up the Britannias, listing Great Britain, Ireland, and many smaller islands.
Ptolemy includes Ireland — he calls it Hibernia — in the island group he calls Britannia. He entitles Book II, Chapter 1 of his Geography as Hibernia, Island of Britannia.
The early surviving discussion of the geography is almost exclusively in classical languages. The "British Isles" terminology is found in modern English only in documents written after the Reformation in England, the earliest quotation of "British Isles" given by the Oxford English Dictionary is in 1621.
The earliest indigenous source to use a collective term for the archipelago is the Life of Saint Columba, a hagiography recording the missionary activities of the sixth century Irish monk Saint Columba among the peoples of modern Scotland. It was written in the late seventh century by Adomnán of Iona, an Irish monk living on the Inner Hebridean island. The collective term for the archipelago used within this work is Oceani Insulae meaning "Islands of the Ocean" (Book 2, 46 in the Sharpe edition = Book 2, 47 in Reeves edition), it is used sparingly and no Priteni-derived collective reference is made.
Another early native source to use a collective term is the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum of Bede written in the early eighth century. The collective term for the archipelago used within this work is insularum meaning "islands" (Book 1 and 8 ) and it too is used sparingly.

Pragmatic Pict

Thanks for that information Blackadder but ancient history is always up for debate and I was only stating what is roughly believed to be the case ( the romans were believed to call any brythonic speaking person a Briton).
One history source believes the origins of the word Celt (not the exact spelling obviously) is from Ancient Greek. ( I will bring detail of this when I find the blasted book!)

IF Convenor

You were stating what you believe to be the case. Romans, believe it or not, spoke Latin.

Blackadder

Latin was the lingua Franca of its day.

Pragmatic Pict

Cymro

The name given to this island (Great Britain) in the Mabinogi is 'Ynys y (Isle of) Kedeyrn'. Not sure what the 'Kedeyrn' bit refers too.

The word Britain is a gradual evolution of the Celtic word 'Brython', which is the family of languages of which Welsh, Cornish and Breton belong. It's quite probable therefore that this island was given the name Britain by the Romans in reference to those who lived on the island given that they largely failed to conquer the bits of the island where Goedelic was spoken, so with Hadrians Wall being the Northern Periphery it was like they where denying an existance of anything above the wall.

It's an interesting part of out history, and a piece children, in Wales, Scotland or England are tought. Most believe Britain comes from the word Britainia and has nothing to do with Celts.

Anthropos

Cunnings · Re: What's in a Name?

What's in a Name?

Re: What's in a Name?