Britain meaning (archaic): definition, etymology and quotations

Britain

noun

UK /ˈbɹɪt.ən/ · US /ˈbɹɪt.ən/

Etymology From Middle English brytayn, from Latin Britannus (adjective and noun, plural Britannī), apparently from Brythonic (compare Old Welsh Priten).

Archaic, Historical An ancient Briton.

The Britains’ struggles with the Scots and Picts [...] led to the Britains asking the Romans for help in constructing a great wall.2002, L. C. Lambdin, R. T. Lambdin, Companion to Old and Middle English Literature, page 12:

Britain

adj

Etymology From Middle English brytayn, from Latin Britannus (adjective and noun, plural Britannī), apparently from Brythonic (compare Old Welsh Priten).

Obsolete Briton; British.

[M]ightie Albion, father of the bold / And warlike people which the Britaine Iſlands hold.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IIII, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, page 160:

Related terms: Great Britain, the British Isles, the United Kingdom

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.