America is a continent, not a country [LWN.net]

America is a continent, not a country

Posted Aug 14, 2024 22:30 UTC (Wed) by neilbrown (subscriber, #359)
In reply to: America is a continent, not a country by nix
Parent article: Bringing encryption restrictions in through the back door

We don't say "Briton", we say "British", which is an adjective just like "American" is.

to post comments

America is a continent, not a country

Posted Aug 16, 2024 22:55 UTC (Fri) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (3 responses)

Bear in mind also, that Briton and Breton are (historically) the same word.

Nowadays the distinction is that Britons come from Grand Bretagne, while Bretons come from Petit Bretagne.

Nationality is complicated ... and usually rooted in myth, not fact, to boot ...

Cheers,
Wol

America is a continent, not a country

Posted Aug 19, 2024 7:53 UTC (Mon) by laarmen (subscriber, #63948) [Link] (2 responses)

Since we're wading into linguistic pedantry, that'd be Grande-Bretagne (Great Britain) vs Bretagne (Brittany). Brittany is culturally divided into Lower and Upper Brittany, so as a Breton I would probably wonder if you're talking about Lower Brittany if you say "Petite Bretagne".

America is a continent, not a country

Posted Aug 20, 2024 14:50 UTC (Tue) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (1 responses)

I did say it was complicated ... :-) and more myth than fact :-)

But I've always understood Grand- and Petit- Bretagne to be a matching pair, as in "the land of the Br(e/i)tons" before the Romans, so Petit-Bretagne to me is all of Brittany. I didn't know that was divided into "Upper" and "Lower".

Cheers,
Wol

America is a continent, not a country

Posted Aug 20, 2024 23:45 UTC (Tue) by jkingweb (subscriber, #113039) [Link]

Just by the way, Bretagne is feminine. La Grande-Bretagne est au nord de la plus petite Bretagne.