Britain is historically just England and Wales, though colloquially now used as a shorter way of saying "Great Britain", which is England, Wales, and Scotland.

The British isles is England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (and all the smaller islands like the Hebrides, Orkneys, etc)

[–] Womble@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

I've literally never heard that or read anything suggesting that. Britain/Britons has been used to describe the islands and peoples of the north Atlantic archipelago since ancient times with great Britain simply referring to the largest island (i.e. England+Scotland+Wales), as per wiki

Written record

The first known written use of the word was an ancient Greek transliteration of the original P-Celtic term. It is believed to have appeared within a periplus written in about 325 BC by the geographer and explorer Pytheas of Massalia, but no copies of this work survive. The earliest existing records of the word are quotations of the periplus by later authors, such as those within Diodorus of Sicily's history (c. 60 BC to 30 BC), Strabo's Geographica (c. 7 BC to AD 19) and Pliny's Natural History (AD 77).[10] According to Strabo, Pytheas referred to Britain as Bretannikē, which is treated a feminine noun.[11][12][13][14] Although technically an adjective (the Britannic or British) it may have been a case of noun ellipsis, a common mechanism in ancient Greek. This term along with other relevant ones, subsequently appeared inter alia in the following works:

Pliny referred to the main island as Britannia, with Britanniae describing the island group.[15][16]
Catullus also used the plural Britanniae in his Carmina.[17][18]
Avienius used insula Albionum in his Ora Maritima.[19]
Orosius used the plural Britanniae to refer to the islands and Britanni to refer to the people thereof.[20]
Diodorus referred to Great Britain as Prettanikē nēsos and its inhabitants as Prettanoi.[21][22]
Ptolemy, in his Almagest, used Brettania and Brettanikai nēsoi to refer to the island group and the terms megale Brettania (Great Britain) and mikra Brettania (little Britain) for the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, respectively.[23] However, in his Geography, he referred to both Alwion (Great Britain) and Iwernia (Ireland) as a nēsos Bretanikē, or British island.[24]

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world -2 points 10 months ago

Jesus Christ what an exhausting people

[–] Squizzy@lemmy.world -4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Fuck off British isles is a term used by the occupiers to legitimize their occupation. The Republic is not a part of the British isles

[–] DillyDaily@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Makes sense, as a geographical location I imagine it has had many names over history based on who controls the narrative. Can I ask what other names there are for the area that isn't supportive of British colonialism?

[–] Squizzy@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You can call us the South Eastern Icelandic archipelago if you'd like. Or the British and Irish islands.

[–] DillyDaily@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Thank you, British and Irish Islands seems like it would be more easily understood by the general populous. When I hear South Eastern Icelandic Archipelago, I get a bit geographically turned around because I'm an idiot and I picture Iceland near Greenland which is near Canada, and I picture Ireland near England which is near France, so in my tiny brain Ireland and Iceland are a whole ocean apart (even though paleo-geographically, it's the same soil)

[–] Squizzy@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I was more joking with that one to be fair but yeah just include Ireland in the terminology and you're good. It is better than the implication that we are a part of Britain.

[–] Gabu@lemmy.ml -1 points 10 months ago

The British Isles is a term used because Albion fell out of favor.