 The
Havana Brown is a breed of cat, resulted from persistent efforts to
develop a completely brown cat breed. In the early 1950s in Britain,
a cross between a seal point Siamese and a black domestic
shorthaired cat with Siamese heritage led to the foundation stock
for the Havana Brown.
The Havana Brown is a moderately sized, muscular short-haired cat
with a body of average length. The coat color must be brown,
typically reddish-brown, with no tabby markings. Whiskers should
also be brown and the eye color should be green. The head should be
slightly longer than wide and the nose should have a distinct stop
at the eyes. Males tend to be larger than females and are average in
weight compared with other breeds.
The Havana Brown is an intelligent cat that often uses its paws both
to examine objects, and to communicate with its owners. The most
likely explanation of the breed's name is that its coat color is
very similar to that of Havana cigars.
The breed has been recognized for championship competition in both
the US and Britain since the late 1950s. It is considered an
endangered breed, since the breeding pool is very small. In the late
1990s, there were only 12 CFA-registered Havana Brown catteries and
under 130 unaltered cats.
Current usage
The word British generally means
belonging to or associated with Britain in one of the first two
senses above (i.e. the United Kingdom or the island of Great
Britain). However, the term has a range of related usages, as
described in this article. Historians and political commentators
normally use "Britain" as the short form of the legal term "United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", not "United
Kingdom." Thus "the British government" or "British cinema." (But
"English literature" where the reference is to the language.) The
term "United Kingdom" is usually used to indicate geography, as "a
road map of the UK" or "the coal mines of the UK.
Etymology
The etymology of the name Britain is thought to derive from a Celtic
word, Pritani, "painted people/men", a reference to the inhabitants
of the islands' use of body paint and tattoos. If this is true,
there is an interesting parallel with the name Pict, connected with
a Latin word of the same meaning. The modern Welsh name for Britain
is Prydain. The Q-Celtic form was Cruithin, showing that the Common
Celtic singular form was qr[ui]tanos. The root is presumably that of
the modern Gaelic/Irish word cruth 'shape, form'.
It has also been postulated that Britain may derive from the Celtic
goddess Brigid, but this is less likely for philological reasons.
In 325 BC the Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia visited a group of
islands which he called Prettaniké, the principal ones being
Albionon (Albion) and Ierne (Erin). The records of this visit date
from much more recent times, so there is room for these details to
be disputed, but it does seem to attest pre-Roman use of the name by
Celtic-speaking inhabitants of the islands.
The Roman geographer Ptolemy called the larger island Megale
Brettania (Great Britain), and the smaller island Micra Bretannia
(Little Britain).
Britain and Brittany
The original reference seems to have been to the territory in which
the Brythonic languages were spoken, which more or less coincided
with the Roman province of Britannia, an area equivalent to modern
England, Wales and southern Scotland. In the Early Middle Ages
speakers of a Brythonic language which later evolved into Breton
migrated from Cornwall to Armorica, Western France, possibly because
of pressure from Saxon invasions. This is why different forms of the
same name apply to insular Britain and continental Brittany. In
French the similarity is even more obvious: Bretagne and Grande
Bretagne.
Geoffrey of Monmouth used the names Britannia minor to refer to the
Armorican region and Britannia major for the island. The element
great in the term Great Britain thus simply means large, to make the
distinction from Brittany.
Britain and Brittany
The original reference seems to have been to the territory in which
the Brythonic languages were spoken, which more or less coincided
with the Roman province of Britannia, an area equivalent to modern
England, Wales and southern Scotland. In the Early Middle Ages
speakers of a Brythonic language which later evolved into Breton
migrated from Cornwall to Armorica, Western France, possibly because
of pressure from Saxon invasions. This is why different forms of the
same name apply to insular Britain and continental Brittany. In
French the similarity is even more obvious: Bretagne and Grande
Bretagne.
Geoffrey of Monmouth used the names Britannia minor to refer to the
Armorican region and Britannia major for the island. The element
great in the term Great Britain thus simply means large, to make the
distinction from Brittany.
Historical evolution of the term 'Britain'
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, the queen's
astrologer and alchemist, John Dee, wrote mystical volumes
predicting a British Empire and using the terms Great Britain and
Britannia. After Elizabeth's death in 1603 the kingdoms shared one
King, James VI of Scotland and I of England. On 20 October 1604 he
proclaimed himself "King of Great Brittaine" (thus including Wales
and also avoiding the cumbersome title "King of England and
Scotland"). This title was eventually adopted formally in 1707 when
the Kingdom of Great Britain was formed.
Politically, then, British has been used to described someone or
something from the United Kingdom, in its various forms, since 1707.
Briton or Brit are also used colloquially in this form, though the
use of Briton here is incorrect.
Since its formation, the kingdom was enlarged in 1801 by the
addition of the island of Ireland — already ruled by the British
monarchy — to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, and was then reduced in 1922 by the independence of the
Irish Free State, now the Republic of Ireland. The name of the
kingdom changed accordingly, in 1927 becoming The United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
British was also used to describe members of nations that formed
part of the British Empire. This use now, however, could be seen as
justifying the colonial era, even if only applied historically.
Modern use of the terms 'British' and 'Britain'
'Britain' then, is now commonly used to refer to the modern United
Kingdom. It is considered inaccurate by some due to the United
Kingdom only making up part of the British Isles and being split
across islands other than Great Britain. For example, this page [2]
on the 10 Downing Street website refers to 'Britain's' 51 Prime
Ministers; this BBC news article [3] refers to 'Britain's' chances
in the 2012 Olympics.
The modern use of the term 'British' is as an adjective to describe
someone or something from the United Kingdom. It is officially used
as the term to describe the nationality of a citizen of the United
Kingdom. Nationalists across the country may reject the term in
favour of their regional national description.
It is also frequently used to describe residents of the United
Kingdom's current colonies. By the British Overseas Territories Act
2002 all residents of the United Kingdom's remaining colonies have
been eligible for British citizenship, making the term particularly
apt.
British occurs in the legal term British Islands . This was coined
to describe all of the islands of the British Isles, excluding those
that form part of the Republic of Ireland, when they act together as
a political whole.
Geographically, the term can be used in various ways:
* To describe someone from the island of Great Britain.
* In the term British Isles, the traditional term for the entire
archipelago of islands that lie off the north west coast of France,
of which Great Britain and Ireland are the two biggest.
* The term has historically been used to describe someone or
something from the British Isles. Due to the above mentioned
potential for offence, this rarely happens today. For example the
British Lions a rugby team which draws players from the United
Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland has been renamed the British and
Irish Lions.
* Sometimes British applies to an area or territory currently or
formerly governed by or a dependent territory of the United Kingdom,
for example the British Virgin Islands, the British Indian Ocean
Territory, or British Columbia which is now a province of Canada.
Brutus of Troy
In keeping with the mediaeval penchant for etymologising country
names in terms of eponymous heroes, English historians of the late
mediaeval and early modern periods charted the history of the nation
from Brutus of Troy, supposedly a hero of the Trojan war who founded
Britain just as Aeneas' descendant Romulus founded Rome, Frankus
France, and so forth. The life of Brutus, anglicised as Brute, was
recorded in the literary tradition of the Prose Brute. This was long
accepted as the etymology of Britain.
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