Britain
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Britain is often used as a short name for the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Northern Ireland). People use this name because most of the UK is on the island of Britain, usually called Great Britain. Sometimes the name Britain is used to refer to the island of Great Britain only, especially in historical contexts e.g. 'Roman Britain'. There are three countries on the island of Britain: England, Scotland and Wales. (Some people say that Cornwall is a fourth country. Others call it part of England.)
[edit] History of the name Britain
The modern name Britain comes from an old Celtic name Prydyn (or Prydein). The Irish language name was Cruithin. The old Greek writers heard these names and called the island Pritanni. Scholars now think the word was the name of the Picts (who lived 2,000-1,500 years ago in the north of Britain which is northern Scotland today) in the Welsh and Irish languages. When the Romans came to the island they called it Britannia. Most of Brittania was the home of the Celtic people called the Britons or Brythons who spoke the ancestor language of modern Welsh, Cornish and Breton. When some of these Britons moved to live in north-west France their called their new country by the same name as their old one. It came to be known as 'Breizh' in Breton, and was called Brittany in English (from the French name Bretagne). To make clear the difference between Brittany and Britain some people started to call the island of Britain "Great Britain", because it was bigger than the "little Britain" (Brittany) in France.
