Scotia

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For other uses, see Scotia (disambiguation).

Scotia was originally the Latin name for Ireland, known to the Romans as Hibernia. Use of the name shifted in the Middle Ages to designate Scotland, since many of the Irish Scotii colonised that area which the Romans referred to as Caledonia.

Scotia was never one fixed place in the Middle Ages. It was a way of saying "Land of the Gaels"; compare Angli, Anglia; Franci, Francia; Romani, Romania; etc. Hence, it once could be used to mean Ireland, as when Isidore of Seville says "Scotia eadem et Hibernia, "Scotland and Ireland are the same country" (Isidore, lib. xii. c. 6)", but the connotation is still ethnic. This is how it is used, for instance, by King Robert I of Scotland and Domhnall Ua Neill during the Scottish Wars of Independence, when Ireland was called Scotia Maior, and Scotland Scotia Minor. In this way, the usage of the word Scotia in the Middle Ages might be compared with the 21st century usage of the word Gaidhealtachd. They both mean the same thing descriptively; and like Scotia, Gàidhealtachd has obtained an official and fixed meaning while retaining something of a descriptive meaning (i.e. the territory of Highland Council or the Highlands in general coincides with no linguistic frontier; and neither do the Gaeltachtaí of Ireland).

However, after the 11th century, Scotia was used mostly for northern Britain, and in this way became fixed. As a translation of Alba, Scotia could mean both the whole Kingdom belonging to the rex Scottorum, or just Scotland north of the Forth.

In the bureaucratic world of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Leo X eventually granted Scotland exclusive right over the word, and this led to Anglo-Scottish takeovers of continental Gaelic monasteries (e.g. the Schottenklöster).

It is from Scotia that all Romance names for Scotland derive, names such as the Romanian Scoţia, the Italian Scozia, the Spanish Escocia, the Portuguese Escócia and the French Écosse.

The term is also used in a Canadian province named Nova Scotia (New Scotland); the village of Scotia in New York State, the Scotia Sea between Antarctica and South America, and in Scotiabank, a trade name for the Bank of Nova Scotia.

The term also is used to describe a piece of wood millwork that is used at the base of columns and in stair construction.

Scotia is also rarely used as a feminine first name.

Scotia Gas Networks (SGN) is the holding company of Scotland Gas Networks, Southern Gas Networks, SGN Connections, SGN Contracting and SGN Metering, in the UK.