Breatain

Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish Bretain, borrowed from Latin Brittōnēs, nominative plural of Brittō.

Proper noun

An Bhreatain f (genitive na Breataine)

1. (loosely) Britain (the United Kingdom, a kingdom and country in Northern Europe including the island of Great Britain as well as Northern Ireland on the northeastern portion of the island of Ireland)
2. Britain (great Britain, a large island (sometimes also including some of the surrounding smaller islands) off the north-west coast of Western Europe, made up of England, Scotland, and Wales; especially (but not exclusively) during antiquity)

Declension

Declension of Breatain (second declension, no plural)

bare forms singular nominative Breatain vocative a Bhreatain genitive Breataine dative Breatain forms with the definite article singular nominative an Bhreatain genitive na Breataine dative leis an mBreatain don Bhreatain

Related terms

• An Bhreatain Bheag f (“Wales”)
• An Bhreatain Mhór f (“Great Britain”)
• An Nua-Bhreatain f (“New Britain”)
• Breatimeacht m or f (“Brexit”)
• Breatnach (“Welsh”, adjective)
• Breatnach m (“a Welsh person”)
• Breatnais f (“the Welsh language”)
• Muir Bhreatan f (“St George's Channel”)

Mutation

Mutated forms of Breatain

radical	lenition	eclipsis
Breatain	Bhreatain	mBreatain

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “Breatain”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “Bretain”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959), “Breatain”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “an Bhreatain”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2026