Talk:Britain

From RFC
Enormous amount of material imported from Wikipedia. Not in anything like our format. Would it be easier to just delete it all? SemperBlotto 09:27, 27 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Comment says it was copied from the 'pedia after discussion there. E.g. an improper transwiki; should probably be reverted, twikied properly, and merged? Nothing wrong with a lot of ety if it is good ... Robert Ullmann 10:25, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Reverted. Will await proper Transwiki. SemperBlotto 18:11, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

24 July 2010 changes
I undid the change from to
 * 1) An island off the western coast of Europe, consisting of the mainlands of England, Scotland and Wales; also called Great Britain.
 * 2)  The United Kingdom.
 * 1) The United Kingdom.
 * 2) An island off the western coast of Europe, consisting of the mainlands of England, Scotland and Wales; more accurately called Great Britain.

The reason is that Britain is not the United Kingdom, it is just the largest island which forms most of three of the four constituent parts of the United Kingdom, so the removal of "loosely" was wrong, so the geographical sense should come first. Also "Britain" isn't "more accurately" called "Great Britain", as strictly "Britain" is just the single island, "Great Britain" is Britain and the surrounding islands that are politically part of England, Wales or Scotland. The the distinction rarely needs to be made though, so the terms are effectively synonymous. Thryduulf (talk) 14:03, 24 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Geographically, Great Britain is the largest island and only that island, not the ones that surround it. 72.200.151.13 06:01, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

27 August 2010 Change
I have swapped around the definition of the entry based on a statement on the website of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which expressly describes the term "Britain" as being a synonymous term for the UK, and not another name for Great Britain. I've provided the web page which I've used for citation of this change below, so someone please revert the edit if you find a more (or equally) official source.

http://digitaldiplomacy.fco.gov.uk/en/guidance/content/editorial/style/uk-britain

28 July 2011 Change
I swapped it around again as the primary meaning is the island, with other means steming from this. I also removed "historical" from the island definition. Indeed, the OED give Britain as the name of the island as the primary meaning, with Great Britain being the political unit formed on the island. --Rannpháirtí anaithnid 23:42, 27 July 2011 (UTC)