Everything about Scotia totally explained
Scotia was originally the
Latin name for
Ireland, known to the Romans as
Hibernia. Use of the name shifted in the
Middle Ages to designate
Scotland, since many of the Irish
Scotii colonised that area which the Romans referred to as
Caledonia.
Scotia was never in the Middle Ages one fixed place. It was a way of saying "Land of the Gaels"; compare
Angli,
Anglia;
Franci,
Francia;
Romani,
Romania; etc. Hence, it once could be used to mean
Ireland, as when Isidore of Seville says "Scotia eadem et Hibernia, "Scotland and Ireland are the same country" (Isidore, lib. xii. c. 6)", but the connotation is still ethnic. This is how it's used, for instance, by King
Robert I of Scotland and Domhnall Ua Neill during the
Scottish Wars of Independence, when Ireland was called
Scotia Maior, and
Scotland Scotia Minor. In this way, the usage of the word
Scotia in the
Middle Ages might be compared with the
21st century usage of the word
Gaidhealtachd. They both mean the same thing descriptively; and like
Scotia,
Gàidhealtachd has obtained an official and fixed meaning while retaining something of a descriptive meaning (for example the territory of
Highland Council or
the Highlands in general coincides with no linguistic frontier; and neither do the
Gaeltachtaí of
Ireland).
However, after the
11th century,
Scotia was used mostly for northern Britain, and in this way became fixed. As a translation of
Alba, Scotia could mean both the whole Kingdom belonging to the
rex Scottorum, or just Scotland north of the
Forth.
In the bureaucratic world of the
Roman Catholic Church,
Pope Leo X eventually granted Scotland exclusive right over the word, and this led to Anglo-Scottish takeovers of continental Gaelic monasteries (for example the
Schottenklöster).
It is from
Scotia that all
Romance names for Scotland derive, names such as the
Romanian Scoţia, the
Italian Scozia, the
Spanish Escocia, the
Portuguese Escócia and the
French Écosse.
The term is also used in a
Canadian province named
Nova Scotia (New Scotland); the village of
Scotia in
New York State, the
Scotia Sea between Antarctica and South America, and in
Scotiabank, a trade name for the Bank of Nova Scotia.
The term also is used to describe a piece of wood millwork that's used at the base of columns and in stair construction.
Scotia is also rarely used as a feminine first name.
Scotia Gas Networks (SGN) is the holding company of Scotland Gas Networks, Southern Gas Networks, SGN Connections, SGN Contracting and SGN Metering, in the UK.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Scotia'.
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