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by mutatio
1772 days ago
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No he's right, it has been used historically to distinguish it from Brittany. What on earth are you talking about regarding imperial legacy? It might be used in a sense to project national potency, but the naming never derived from any imperial motive. It seems to me along with your earlier comment, that you're fixated on self flagellation and a conclusion that just doesn't exist regarding the naming. |
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"Claudius Ptolemy referred to the larger island as great Britain (μεγάλη Βρεττανία megale Brettania) and to Ireland as little Britain (μικρὰ Βρεττανία mikra Brettania) in his work Almagest (147–148 AD)"
I feel that the reference to English and UK colonial and imperial legacy is more a recognition that the term has in the present day become controversial, and, to some, offensive for a number of reasons which include: a history of oppression and/dominance, both within the archipelago and beyond; a jingoistic element within the UK population that considers that to be a good thing; the conflation of the various meanings of _great_
Those things are distinct from where the name came from ≈2,000 years ago, but speak directly to why it might be offensive today