I feel a ned to pop back and correct Flecc
Derivation of "Great"
The
Greco-Egyptian scientist
Ptolemy referred to the larger island as
great Britain (
μεγάλης Βρεττανίας - megális Brettanias) and to Ireland as
little Britain (
μικρής Βρεττανίας - mikris Brettanias) in his work
Almagest (147–148 AD).
[20] In his later work,
Geography (c. 150 AD), he gave the islands the names
Alwion,
Iwernia, and
Mona (the
Isle of Man),
[21] suggesting these may have been the names of the individual islands not known to him at the time of writing
Almagest.
[22] The name
Albion appears to have fallen out of use sometime after the
Roman conquest of Britain, after which
Britain became the more commonplace name for the island.
[15]
After the Anglo-Saxon period,
Britain was used as a historical term only.
Geoffrey of Monmouth in his
pseudohistorical Historia Regum Britanniae (
c. 1136) refers to the island as
Britannia major ("Greater Britain"), to distinguish it from
Britannia minor ("Lesser Britain"), the continental region which approximates to modern
Brittany, which had been settled in the fifth and sixth centuries by migrants from Britain.
[23] The term
Great Britain was first used officially in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between
Cecily the daughter of
Edward IV of England, and
James the son of
James III of Scotland, which described it as "this Nobill Isle, callit Gret Britanee". It was used again in 1604, when
King James VI and I styled himself "King of Great Brittaine, France and Ireland".
Modern use of the term Great Britain
Great Britain refers geographically to the island of Great Britain, politically to
England,
Scotland and
Wales in combination.
[24] However, it is sometimes used loosely to refer to the whole of the
United Kingdom.
[25]
Similarly,
Britain, can refer to either all islands in Great Britain, the largest island, or the political grouping of counties.
[26] There is no clear distinction, even in government documents: the UK government yearbooks have used both "Britain"
[27] and "United Kingdom".
[28]
GB and
GBR are used instead of
UK in some international codes to refer to the United Kingdom, including the
Universal Postal Union, international sports teams,
NATO, the
International Organization for Standardization country codes
ISO 3166-2 and
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3, and
international licence plate codes.
On the Internet,
.uk is the
country code top-level domain for the United Kingdom. A
.gb top-level domain was used to a limited extent, but is now obsolete because the domain name registrar will not take new registrations.
In the Olympics,
Team GB is used by the
British Olympic Association to represent the
Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic team. The
British Grand Prix of
motor racing is another example of a use of
Britain in place of the United Kingdom.
Political definition
Political definition of Great Britain (dark green)
– in
Europe (green & dark grey)
– in the
United Kingdom (green)
Politically, Great Britain refers to the whole of England, Scotland and Wales in combination,
[29] but not
Northern Ireland; it includes islands, such as the
Isle of Wight,
Anglesey, the
Isles of Scilly, the
Hebrides and the island groups of
Orkney and
Shetland, that are part of England, Wales, or Scotland. It does not include the
Isle of Man and the
Channel Islands, which are self-governing
dependent territories.
[29][30]
The political union that joined the kingdoms of
England and
Scotland happened in 1707 when the
Acts of Union ratified the 1706
Treaty of Union and merged the parliaments of the two nations, forming the
Kingdom of Great Britain, which covered the entire island. Before this, a personal union had existed between these two countries since the 1603
Union of the Crowns under
James VI of Scotland and I of England.
