Britannia

English

Etymology

From Latin Britannia

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɹɪˈtænɪə/

Proper noun

Britannia

1. A female personification of Britain or the United Kingdom.
   • 1740, James Thomson (lyrics), Thomas Arne (music), Rule, Britannia!

     Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves / Britons never, never shall be slaves

2. (historical) A province of the Roman Empire covering most of the island of Britain.
3. A settlement in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Derived terms

• Britannia metal
• Britannia silver
• Cool Britannia

See also

• John Bull

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Finnish

Proper noun

Britannia

1. (ambiguously) United Kingdom, Great Britain, Britain (used to refer to the state of United Kingdom or its largest island consisting of England, Scotland and Wales)
2. Britain (Roman province)
3. Britannia (female personification of Britain)

Declension

Inflection of Britannia (Kotus type 12/kulkija, no gradation)
nominative		Britannia	—
genitive		Britannian	—
partitive		Britanniaa	—
illative		Britanniaan	—
		singular	plural
nominative		Britannia	—
accusative	nom.	Britannia	—
	gen.	Britannian
genitive		Britannian	—
partitive		Britanniaa	—
inessive		Britanniassa	—
elative		Britanniasta	—
illative		Britanniaan	—
adessive		Britannialla	—
ablative		Britannialta	—
allative		Britannialle	—
essive		Britanniana	—
translative		Britanniaksi	—
instructive		—	—
abessive		Britanniatta	—
comitative		—	—

Possessive forms of Britannia (type kulkija)
possessor	singular	plural
1st person	Britanniani	Britanniamme
2nd person	Britanniasi	Britannianne
3rd person	Britanniansa

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Italian

Etymology

From Latin Britannia.

Proper noun

Britannia f

1. (archaic) Great Britain, Britain
2. Britain (Roman province)
3. Britannia (female personification of Britain)

Anagrams

• antibrina

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Latin

Alternative forms

• Brittannia, Brittania, Britania
• Bretannia, Brettannia, Brettania
• Brictania, Brintania (Late Latin), Brytannia (Medieval Latin)

Etymology

Attested from the 1st century B.C.E., directly or from Ancient Greek Βρεττανία (Brettanía), Πρεττανία (Prettanía) (in Diodorus), earlier νῆσος Πρεττανική (nêsos Prettanikḗ) or Βρεττανίαι (Brettaníai), used by Pytheas (4th century B.C.E.) of the entire archipelago now known as the British Isles.

The Ancient Greek name is ultimately from a Celtic ethnonym, reconstructed as early Brythonic *Pritani, perhaps from a Proto-Celtic *Kʷritanī, *Kʷritenī, whence Welsh Prydyn (“Picts”), Old Irish Cruthne, Cru(i)then-túath (“Picts”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷer- (“to do”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /briˈtan.ni.a/, [brɪˈt̪änːiä]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /briˈtan.ni.a/, [briˈt̪änːiä]
• Note: only found in hexameters with a short first syllable, except for a single instance of /britt-/ in Lucretius. Sergius on Donatus testifies to /a:n/ rather than /ann/. Romance descendants seem to consistently point to /tt/.

Proper noun

Britannia f sg (genitive Britanniae); first declension

1. Britain, i.e. the country of the Britons
2. Great Britain

Declension

First-declension noun, with locative, singular only.

Case	Singular
Nominative	Britannia
Genitive	Britanniae
Dative	Britanniae
Accusative	Britanniam
Ablative	Britanniā
Vocative	Britannia
Locative	Britanniae

Derived terms

• Britannia Minor (“Brittany”)

Related terms

• britannicus
• britannus
• Britannus, genitive singular and nominative plural Britannī
• Brītō / Brittō

Descendants

• Catalan: Bretanya
• → Dutch: Brittannië
• → English: Britannia, Britain, Brittany
  • →Japanese: ブリテン (Buriten)
  • →Korean: 브리튼 (Beuriteun)
  • → Mandarin: 不列顛 (Bùlièdiān)
• → German: Britannien
• Italian: Bretagna
• Old French: Bretaigne
  • French: Bretagne
    • →Japanese: ブルターニュ (Burutānyu)
• Old Portuguese: Bretanna
  • Portuguese: Bretanha, Britânia
• Spanish: Bretaña

References

• “Britann-” in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present