56 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



Many attecnpts have been made to explain the Etymology of the 

 word Britain. Betham is of the opinion that the Phcenicians gave 

 the name Briteen (brith, painted, and daoine, men) to the people 

 whom they found in Britain ; and that the word Britain is com- 

 pounded of brit, painted, and tana, country, the meaning thus being 

 the country of the painted people. It has also been maintained that 

 Britain derives its name from Prydain, the first legendary King of 

 Britain, after whom the island was called Ynys Prydain, The Island 

 of Prydain. Before the Christian era Albin, or Albion, was an 

 appellation by which the countries now known as England and Scot- 

 land were designated. Albin, or Albion, is now restricted to Scot- 

 land, and is the term which the Scottish Gaels apply to that country. 

 Albin is in all likelihood compounded of alb, alp, a mountain, and 

 oi fhonn, fonn, a country, the import of the word thus being the 

 country of hills or mountains. The conjecture has been advanced 

 that the name Britain is composed of braigh, a top, and tonn, a 

 , wave, braitoin ; and that that appellation was given to Britain in 

 consequence of its lofty coast line as seen from the opposite shores of 

 Gaul. Breac, variegated, and innis, an island, Breacinnis, is another 

 derivation which has been assigned for the word in question. It is 

 almost needless to remark, that although such interpretations may be 

 ingenious, very much that is fanciful enters into them. An inter- 

 pretation of a more plausible and accurate kind has recently been 

 given by Prof. Rhys, who maintains that " the Greeks of Marseilles 

 obtained the word Britanni from the nabives of the south-west of 

 England, who brought their tin to market, and in whose country the 

 only Celtic speech in use was as yet Goidelic." He discovers in the 

 word Britain, Bretnais, brat, brattan, the Gaelic term for a covering 

 or a cloak, — an argument in support of the theory, that the Celts 

 assumed the name which the Romans afterward wrote Britanni, to 

 distinguish themselves as a clothed or cloth-clad people (breid, a piece 

 of cloth) from the naked races who preceded them in the occupation 

 of the British Isles. Though, amid so many explanations of the 

 origin and Etymology of the word Britain, it appears to be impos- 

 sible to arrive at a solution that can be regarded as in all respects 

 satisfactory, it may at least be conceded that the term in question is 

 rather Cymric than Gaelic. Breathnach is the name which is applied 

 in Irish Gaelic to a Welshman. Dumbarton, which was once the 

 capital of a Kingdom of Britons in the valley of the Clyde, is com- 



