Albion

[TYRRHENUS]

Hello all.
I need some help from those who know Celtic history...

Where does the name Albion come from? Which language? Latin or Celtic or other?
Is it the root of the Gaelic word Albanach?

The oldest reference I can find comes from Pliny the Elder's Natural History, 4.102:
Opposite the Rhine and the Meuse is the island of Britain, well known in Greek and our historical records. It is situated to the north-west, facing, but separated by a wide channel from, Germany, Gaul and Spain, which together make up the greater part of Europe. Its native name is Albion, while all the islands, about which I shall speak a little later, are called Britains.Many thanks.

[Mnemosyne]

Yeah, Britain was called Albion. I think that it comes from the Latin word "alba" meaning "white." I don't know though. I think that the Romans would have thought that Britain would have looked "alba" because of the cold weather and snow. It's kind of similar to how the Romans called Ireland "Hibernia" meaning "winter."

[Mòrag Elasaid Ní Dhòmhnaill]

Hello all.
I need some help from those who know Celtic history...

Where does the name Albion come from? Which language? Latin or Celtic or other?
Is it the root of the Gaelic word Albanach?

The oldest reference I can find comes from Pliny the Elder's Natural History, 4.102:Many thanks.

Albion is accepted by many scholars to be an early form of Celtic. The underlying form is Albiones, which would roughly translate as 'people of the living surface world.' And since Mnemosyne brought it up, Ierne, the early Celtic name for Ireland and why Ireland is called Erin, would have translated as 'people of the fertile earth.' The earliest surving reference to Albion is found in the Massilliot Periplus, probably dating to the 6th century BCE. It is preserved in the Ora Maritima of Avienus. There Britian, not just Scotland, is referred to as insula Albionum and the Irish are also made mention, as the gens Hiernorum.*

*The Ancient Celts, Barry Cunliffe, Oxford University Press, 1997

However, the Online Etymology Dictionary (http://www.etymonline.com/) gives this as the etymology:

"Albion - ancient name of England, O.E., from L., sometimes said to be from the non-I.E. base *alb "mountain," which may have produced L. Alpes "Alps" and Alba, an Ir. name for "Scotland." But more likely from L. albus "white" (see alb), which would be an apt description of the chalk cliffs of the island's southern coast.
"Breoton is garsecges ealond, ðæt wæs iu geara Albion haten." [translation of Bede's "Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum," c.900 C.E.]
Perfidious Albion translates Fr. rhetorical phrase la perfide Albion, supposedly first used by Napoleon I, a ref. to the treacherous policies of Britain in dealing with foreign powers. "

[TYRRHENUS]

Thanks you 2 :) . Good stuff.

[mucgwyrt]

yes, I was gonnan mention the white cliffs, its the first thing you see as you sail to England.
It doesn't really snow here much anymore, though I did hear that in the victorian times winters were so cold that the Thames used to freeze over and people used to ice-skate on it!