Have you heard of Armorica?
The name Armorica is a Latinized form of the Gaulish toponym Aremorica, which literally means 'place in front of the sea'. It is formed with the prefix are- ('in front of') attached to -mori- ('sea') and the feminine suffix -(i)cā, denoting the localization (or provenance). The inhabitants of the region were called Aremorici (sing. Aremoricos), formed with the stem are-mori- extended by the determinative suffix -cos. It is glossed by the Latin antemarini in Endlicher's Glossary. The Slavs use a similar formation, Po-mor-jane ('those in front of the sea'), to designate the inhabitants of Pomerania. The Latin adjective Armoricani was an administrative term designating in particular a sector of the Roman defence line in Gaul in Late Antiquity, the Tractus Armoricani ('Armorican Tract').
In medieval Insular Celtic languages, the Celtic term *Litauia, meaning 'Land' or 'Country' (from an original Proto-Celtic *Litauī 'Earth', lit. 'the Vast One'), came to be used to designate the Brittany Peninsula, as in Old Irish Letha, Old Welsh Litau, Old Breton Letau, or in the Latinized form Letavia.
In Breton, which belongs to the Brythonic branch of the Insular Celtic languages, along with Welsh and Cornish, "on [the] sea" is war vor (Welsh ar fôr, "f" being voiced and pronounced like English "v"), but the older form arvor is used to refer to the coastal regions of Brittany, in contrast to argoad (ar "on/at", coad "forest" [Welsh ar goed or coed "trees"]) for the inland regions. The cognate modern usages suggest that the Romans first contacted coastal people in the inland region and assumed that the regional name Aremorica referred to the whole area, both coastal and inland.
In medieval Insular Celtic languages, the Celtic term *Litauia, meaning 'Land' or 'Country' (from an original Proto-Celtic *Litauī 'Earth', lit. 'the Vast One'), came to be used to designate the Brittany Peninsula, as in Old Irish Letha, Old Welsh Litau, Old Breton Letau, or in the Latinized form Letavia.
In Breton, which belongs to the Brythonic branch of the Insular Celtic languages, along with Welsh and Cornish, "on [the] sea" is war vor (Welsh ar fôr, "f" being voiced and pronounced like English "v"), but the older form arvor is used to refer to the coastal regions of Brittany, in contrast to argoad (ar "on/at", coad "forest" [Welsh ar goed or coed "trees"]) for the inland regions. The cognate modern usages suggest that the Romans first contacted coastal people in the inland region and assumed that the regional name Aremorica referred to the whole area, both coastal and inland.
