the origin of the name Britain

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danielspaniel D
danielspaniel Nov 9, 2005 13:37:43
Replying to fitzcoraldo

I have noticed there are quite a few rivers and towns/ villages using Bree, Bride, Bredy etc in both Dorset and Kent. The most obvious being near Abbotsbury in Dorset around the villages of Little Bredy and Long Bredy, which, as many here will now, is an area rich in prehistoric sites. It would be interesting to know when and why these namings occured and whether they do pertain to the 'goddess' Bridget.

Apparently even the terms 'Celt' and 'Celtic' were originally just R*man words to diss scary barbarian types ('you callin' me a celt?!'), yet it has come to sum up the culture and ethnicity of a range of quite disparate peoples.

F FourWinds
FourWinds Nov 9, 2005 19:26:01
Replying to danielspaniel

The Greeks coined the name Keltoi, which the R*mans then used to describe all tribe west of the Rhine. They called those to the east of the Rhine Germanic.

P PeterH
PeterH Nov 9, 2005 19:49:57
Replying to danielspaniel

Place-names can mislead so easily.
Bred can be Saxon for broad as in Bredfield and Bredgar - broad field and broad strip. Ekwall interprets Bredon as a combination of Old British (Celtic if you prefer) Bre meaning a hill as in modern Welsh "bre" from the ancient British word "briga" plus the Old English "dun". There is that "briga" word again that takes us back to the discussion about the Briganties.

Then there is Bredy, both Long Bredy and Little Bredy in Dorset. Here Ekwall writes that it derives from "Bride" a British river name related to the Welsh "brydio" meaning to boil or throb. River names are our oldest surviving place names and perhaps reflect the names of deities, but perhaps not.