Scotia is a Latin placename derived from Scoti , a Latin name for the Gaels, [1] first attested in the late 3rd century. [1] The Romans referred to Ireland as "Scotia" around 500 A.D. From the 9th century on, its meaning gradually shifted, so that it came to mean only the part of Britain lying north of the Firth of Forth: the Kingdom of Scotland. [1] By the later Middle Ages it had become the fixed Latin term for what in English is called Scotland.
The name of Scotland is derived from the Latin Scotia. The word Scoti (or Scotti) was first used by the Romans. It is found in Latin texts from the 4th century describing an Irish group that raided Roman Britain. [2] It came to be applied to all Gaels. [3] [4] It is not believed that any Gaelic groups called themselves Scoti in ancient times, except when writing in Latin. [2] Old Irish documents use the term Scot (plural Scuit) going back as far as the 9th century; for example, in the glossary of Cormac mac Cuilennáin. [5]
Oman derived it from Scuit (modern Gaelic scoith ), meaning someone cut off. He believed it referred to bands of outcast Gaelic raiders, suggesting that the Scots were to the Gaels what the Vikings were to the Norse. [6] [7]
The 19th-century author Aonghas MacCoinnich of Glasgow proposed that Scoti was derived from a Gaelic ethnonym (proposed by MacCoinnich) Sgaothaich from sgaoth "swarm", plus the derivational suffix -ach (plural -aich). [8] However, this proposal to date has not been met with any response in mainstream place-name studies. Pope Leo X (1513–1521) decreed that the use of the name Scotia be confined to referring to land that is now Scotland. [9] [10]
Virtually all names for Scotland are based on the Scotia root (cf. Dutch Schotland, French Écosse, Czech Skotsko, Zulu IsiKotilandi, Māori Koterana, Hakka Sû-kak-làn, Quechua Iskusya, Turkish İskoçya etc.), either directly or via intermediate languages. The only exceptions are the Celtic languages, where the names are based on the Alba root; e.g., Manx Nalbin, Welsh Yr Alban", Irish "Albain."
Scotia translates to "Land of the Scots". It was a way of saying "Land of the Gaels" (compare Angli and Anglia; Franci and Francia; Romani and Romania; etc). It was initially used as a name for Ireland, originally with ethnic connotations, for example in Adomnán's Life of Columba , [1] or by Isidore of Seville, who wrote in 580 CE that "Scotia and Hibernia are the same country" (Isidore, lib. xii. c. 6). [11] This is how it was used, for instance, by King Robert I of Scotland (Robert the Bruce) and Domhnall Ua Néill during the Scottish Wars of Independence, when Ireland was called Scotia Maior (greater Scotia) and Scotland Scotia Minor (lesser Scotia).
After the 11th century, Scotia was used mostly for the kingdom of Alba, or Scotland, and in this way became the fixed designation. As a translation of Alba , Scotia could mean both the whole kingdom belonging to the King of Scots, or just Scotland north of the Forth.
Pope Leo X of the Roman Catholic Church eventually granted Scotland exclusive right over the word, and this led to Anglo-Scottish takeovers of continental Gaelic monasteries (e.g., the Schottenklöster ).
One of the oldest sources recorded was from medieval Monarchy. In the year 1005, after Brian Boru was crowned king, he adopted the title Imperator Scotorum, [12] "Emperor of the Scoti" suggesting he saw himself as the overlord of all Scotia and Gaels. [13] The title was however adopted and not formally provided.
Within Irish Mythology, Geoffrey Keating's Foras Feasa ar Éirinn , Ireland's "ninth name was Scotia; and it is the sons of Míleadh who gave that name to it, from their mother, whose name was Scota, daughter of Pharao Nectonibus; or it is why they called it Scotia, because that they are themselves the Scottish race from Scythia". [14] According to the Middle Irish language synthetic history Lebor Gabála Érenn , she was the daughter of Pharaoh Necho II of Egypt. Other sources say that Scota was the daughter of Pharaoh Neferhotep I of Egypt and his wife Senebsen, and was the wife of Míl, that is Milesius, and the mother of Éber Donn and Érimón. Míl had given Neferhotep military aid against ancient Ethiopia and was given Scota in marriage as a reward for his services. Writing in 1571, Edmund Campion named the pharaoh Amenophis; Keating named him Cincris.
In geography, the term is also used for the following:
The term also is used/for the following purposes;
Causantín mac Áeda was an early King of Scotland, known then by the Gaelic name Alba. The Kingdom of Alba, a name which first appears in Constantine's lifetime, was situated in what is now Northern Scotland.
The Goidelic or Gaelic languages form one of the two groups of Insular Celtic languages, the other being the Brittonic languages.
The Picts were a group of peoples in what is now Scotland north of the Firth of Forth, in the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and details of their culture can be gleaned from early medieval texts and Pictish stones. The name Picti appears in written records as an exonym from the late third century AD. They are assumed to have been descendants of the Caledonii and other northern Iron Age tribes. Their territory is referred to as "Pictland" by modern historians. Initially made up of several chiefdoms, it came to be dominated by the Pictish kingdom of Fortriu from the seventh century. During this Verturian hegemony, Picti was adopted as an endonym. This lasted around 160 years until the Pictish kingdom merged with that of Dál Riata to form the Kingdom of Alba, ruled by the House of Alpin. The concept of "Pictish kingship" continued for a few decades until it was abandoned during the reign of Caustantín mac Áeda.
Scottish Gaelic, also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Goidelic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as both Irish and Manx, developed out of Old Irish. It became a distinct spoken language sometime in the 13th century in the Middle Irish period, although a common literary language was shared by the Gaels of both Ireland and Scotland until well into the 17th century. Most of modern Scotland was once Gaelic-speaking, as evidenced especially by Gaelic-language place names.
Dál Riata or Dál Riada was a Gaelic kingdom that encompassed the western seaboard of Scotland and north-eastern Ireland, on each side of the North Channel. At its height in the 6th and 7th centuries, it covered what is now Argyll in Scotland and part of County Antrim in Northern Ireland. After a period of expansion, Dál Riata eventually became associated with the Gaelic Kingdom of Alba.
Scoti or Scotti is a Latin name for the Gaels, first attested in the late 3rd century. It originally referred to all Gaels, first those in Ireland and then those who had settled in Great Britain as well, but it later came to refer only to Gaels in northern Britain. The kingdom to which their culture spread became known as Scotia or Scotland, and eventually all its inhabitants came to be known as Scots.
Lir or Ler is a sea god in Irish mythology. His name suggests that he is a personification of the sea, rather than a distinct deity. He is named Allód in early genealogies, and corresponds to the Llŷr of Welsh mythology. Lir is chiefly an ancestor figure, and is the father of the god Manannán mac Lir, who appears frequently in medieval Irish literature. Lir appears as the eponymous king in the tale The Children of Lir.
The Milesians or sons of Míl are the final race to settle in Ireland, according to the Lebor Gabála Érenn, a medieval Irish Christian history. The Milesians represent the Irish people. They are Gaels who sail to Ireland from Iberia (Hispania) after spending hundreds of years travelling the Earth. When they land in Ireland, they contend with the Tuatha Dé Danann, who represent the Irish pantheon of gods. The two groups agree to divide Ireland between them: the Milesians take the world above, while the Tuath Dé take the world below.
In medieval Irish and Scottish legend, Scota is the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh and ancestor of the Gaels. She is said to be the origin of their Latin name Scoti, but historians say she was purely mythological and was created to explain the name and to fit the Gaels into a historical narrative.
Caledonia was the Latin name used by the Roman Empire to refer to the part of Scotland that lies north of the River Forth, which includes most of the land area of Scotland. Today, it is used as a romantic or poetic name for all of Scotland. During the Roman Empire's occupation of Scotland, the area they called Caledonia was physically separated from the rest of the island by the Antonine Wall. The Romans several times invaded and occupied it, but unlike the rest of the island, it remained outside the administration of Roman Britain.
Fortriu was a Pictish kingdom recorded between the 4th and 10th centuries. It was traditionally believed to be located in and around Strathearn in central Scotland, but is more likely to have been based in the north, in the Moray and Easter Ross area. Fortriu is a term used by historians as it is not known what name its people used to refer to their polity. Historians also sometimes use the name synonymously with Pictland in general.
The Kingdom of Alba was the Kingdom of Scotland between the deaths of Donald II in 900 and of Alexander III in 1286. The latter's death led indirectly to an invasion of Scotland by Edward I of England in 1296 and the First War of Scottish Independence.
The origins of the Kingdom of Alba pertain to the origins of the Kingdom of Alba, or the Gaelic Kingdom of Scotland, either as a mythological event or a historical process, during the Early Middle Ages.
The High Middle Ages of Scotland encompass Scotland in the era between the death of Domnall II in 900 AD and the death of King Alexander III in 1286, which was an indirect cause of the Wars of Scottish Independence.
In medieval Irish and Scottish legend, Goídel Glas is the creator of the Goidelic languages and eponymous ancestor of the Gaels. The tradition can be traced to the 11th-century Lebor Gabála Érenn. A Scottish variant is recorded by John of Fordun.
Scotland is a country that occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain and forms part of the United Kingdom. The name of Scotland is derived from the Latin Scoti, the term applied to Gaels. The origin of the word Scotia dates back to the 4th century and was first used by Roman writers to describe the northern Gaelic group of raiders that left present-day Ireland and landed in west coast Scotland.
The Kingdom of Munster was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland which existed in the south-west of the island from at least the 1st century BC until 1118. According to traditional Irish history found in the Annals of the Four Masters, the kingdom originated as the territory of the Clanna Dedad, an Érainn tribe of Irish Gaels. Some of the early kings were prominent in the Red Branch Cycle such as Cú Roí and Conaire Mór. For a few centuries they were competitors for the High Kingship of Ireland, but ultimately lost out to the Connachta, descendants of Conn Cétchathach. The kingdom had different borders and internal divisions at different times during its history.
The Gaels are an ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic languages comprising Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic.
Scottish Gaelic literature refers to literary works composed in the Scottish Gaelic language, which is, like Irish and Manx, a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. Gaelic literature was also composed in Gàidhealtachd communities throughout the global Scottish diaspora where the language has been and is still spoken.
Scottish Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish. Most of modern Scotland was once Gaelic-speaking, as evidenced especially by Gaelic-language placenames.