Names of the British Isles
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The toponym "British Isles" refers to a European archipelago comprising Great Britain, Ireland and the smaller, adjacent islands.[1] The word "British" has also become an adjective and demonym referring to the United Kingdom[2] and more historically associated with the British Empire. For this reason, the name British Isles is avoided by some, as such usage could be interpreted to imply continued territorial claims or political overlordship of the Republic of Ireland by the United Kingdom.[3][4][5][6][7]
Alternative names that have sometimes been coined for the British Isles include "Britain and Ireland",[3][8][9] the "Atlantic Archipelago",[10] the "Anglo-Celtic Isles",[11][12] the "British-Irish Isles",[13] and the Islands of the North Atlantic.[14] In documents drawn up jointly between the British and Irish governments, the archipelago is referred to simply as "these islands".[15]
To some[according to whom?], the reasons to use an alternate name is partly semantic, while, to others, it is a value-laden political one.[16] The Channel Islands are normally included in the British Isles by tradition, though they are physically a separate archipelago from the rest of the isles.[17][18] United Kingdom law uses the term British Islands to refer to the UK, Channel Islands, and Isle of Man as a single collective entity.
An early variant of the term British Isles dates back to Ancient Greek times[citation needed], when they were known as the Pretanic or Britannic Islands, although in its etymology section the Oxford English Dictionary describes the plural Latin form, Britannicae insulae or Britannic/British islands, as rare, and only lists singular Old English and Welsh antecedents which refer to Great Britain alone.[19] It was translated as the British Isles into English in the late 16th or early 17th centuries by English and Welsh writers, whose writings have been described as propaganda and politicised.[20][21][22]
The term became controversial after the breakup of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1922. The names of the archipelago's two sovereign states were themselves the subject of a long dispute between the Irish and British governments.