Britannicus

Forms

Britannicus (feminine Britannica, neuter Britannicum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] The OLD notes the spelling Britt-;^[2][3] Georges also gives Brittanicus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin Britannia + -icus.^[3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use is in a letter of Cicero, who writes that he is waiting for the Britannicae litterae, the letters from Britain.^[2][4] Cicero also has it of the tides of the British sea in his work on the nature of the gods.^[2]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it is used for whatever belongs to Britain: Caesar's British war, the British ocean between the Rhine and the Seine in Pliny the Elder, the British army in Tacitus, a British whale in Juvenal and the British fleet in the jurist Javolenus.^[2]

As a man's name it was the surname taken by the son of the emperor Claudius and Messalina, which Tacitus, Suetonius and Juvenal use.^[2][3] Georges notes it as the surname of those who defeated British peoples,^[3] and inscriptions of AD 192 give it to the emperor Commodus.^[6] The feminine as a noun, herba Britannica, named a plant in Pliny the Elder; the OLD leaves it unidentified, while Georges takes it for water dock.^[2][3] English Britannic was taken from it in the 1640s.^[5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of letters from Britain.^[2][4]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar writes of the British war.^[2][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder names the British ocean and a plant Britannica.^[2][4]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of the army and as the surname of Claudius's son.^[2][4]
• 192 AD – Inscriptions give it as a title of Commodus.^[6]
• 1640s – English borrows Britannic.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to Britain; British.^[2][3][1]
2. (masculine as a noun) Britannicus, the surname of the son of Claudius and Messalina; also a title of emperors and of victors over British peoples.^[2][3][6]
3. (feminine as a noun) A plant named in Pliny the Elder, not identified; perhaps water dock.^[2][3]

Related words

• English Britannic

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften