Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word Briton. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word Briton, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say Briton in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word Briton you have here. The definition of the word Briton will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofBriton, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
At last the Saxons had killed nearly all the Britons, and the few who remained took refuge in the mountains, in that part of the country which we now call Wales, and in Cornwall.
He writhed for twenty minutes under the flowery and eulogistic periods of the president, and rose himself in the state of confused indignation which the Briton feels when he is publicly approved.
The ancient Britons were particularly fond of Anglesey, which the Romans knew as Mona.
1740, “Rule, Britannia!”, James Thomson (lyrics), Thomas Arne (music):
Rule, Britannia! Britannia rules the waves: Britons never, never, never will be slaves.
1760, King George III, quoted in George Rose's 1860 Diaries and Correspondence..., Vol. II, p. 189:
I glory in the name of Briton.
1902, George Stoddart Whitmore, The Last Maori War in New Zealand..., page vi:
Many of the rank and file had no better conception of the proud and sensitive Maori than was implied in the degrading 'nigger' theory, invariably applied by the unthinking Briton to all colouredraces.
The victims included 3 Canadians, 2 Irishmen, and 1 Briton.
The hiker was a Briton from New Zealand.
Usage notes
Citizens of Britain are usually known collectively as theBritish and informally as Brits. Englishman was traditionally used whenever a formal countable demonym was required, although this is increasingly deprecated as a general term except in exclusive reference to the people of England proper. Briton has been used for modern people since the personal union of England and Scotland under James I, but some speakers continue to deprecate that sense and use it exclusively to refer to the ancient Celts in the region of Roman Britain, which covered modern England and Wales south of Caledonia. When a speaker is accustomed to calling modern Brits Britons, the former Celtic peoples are usually distinguished as the ancient Britons.
Synonyms
(native of Great Britain, subject of the UK): the British(collective); Brit(colloquial); Britisher(now chiefly Canada, US, India); limey(jocular); pom, pommy, etc. (Australia, NZ, South African slang, sometimes offensive); seeEnglishman(proscribed, sometimes offensive)
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.