Cambria is a latinised form of Cymru, which is the Welsh name for Wales. The etymology of Cymro "Welshman", Cimbri, and Cwmry "Cumbria", improbably connected to Gomer and the "Cimmerians" by 17th-century celticists, is now known to come from Old Welsh combrog "compatriot, Welshman"[1], deriving from an old Brythonic word "combroges" or Proto-British *kom-brogos[2][3], meaning "compatriots", (as a result of the struggle with the Anglo-Saxons) possibly therefore related to its sister language Breton's keñvroad, keñvroiz "compatriot" [4].
Cambria in legend
According to Geoffrey of Monmouth in the first part of his Historia Regum Britanniae, the Trojan Brutus had three sons among whom (having subdued Gogmagog) he divided his lands after landing in Britain. His elder son, Locrinus, received the land between the rivers Humber and Severn, which he called Loegria (a Latinization of the Welsh, Lloegr "England"). His second son, Albanactus, got the lands beyond the Humber, which took from him the name of Albany (Yr Alban: Scotland). The younger son, Camber, was bequeathed everything beyond the Severn, which was called after him "Cambria". This legend was widely prevalent throughout the 12th-16th centuries, but came under serious attack in later times. Today it is no longer generally accepted as historical fact.
Legacy
The name "Cambria" lives on in much contemporary literature. It is also used in geology to denote the geologic period between around 542 million years and 488.3 million years ago, now known as the Cambrian; it was in Wales that rocks from this age were first studied.
References
- ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. Webster's Third New International Dictionary. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2002: 321
- ^ Jones, J. Morris. Welsh Grammar: Historical and Comparative. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913; new edition, 1995.
- ^ Russell, Paul. Introduction to the Celtic Languages. London: Longman, 1995.
- ^ Delamarre, Xavier. Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise. Paris: Errance, 2001.
