Editing Gaul (section)

==Etymology==<!-- 'Galatia (Europe)' redirects here; this section is linked from 'Celt' -->
{{further|Names of the Celts#Galli, Galatai}}
The Greek and Latin names ''[[Galatia]]'' (first attested by [[Timaeus (historian)|Timaeus of Tauromenium]] in the 4th century BC) and ''Gallia'' are ultimately derived from a [[Celts|Celtic]] ethnic term or clan ''Gal(a)-to-''.{{sfn|Birkhan|1997|page=48}} The ''Galli'' of ''[[Gallia Celtica]]'' were reported to refer to themselves as ''Celtae'' by Caesar. Hellenistic [[etymology]] connected the name of the [[Galatians (people)|Galatians]] (Γαλάται, ''Galátai'') to the supposedly "milk-white" skin (γάλα, ''gála'' "milk") of the [[Gauls]].<ref>"The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville" p. 198 Cambridge University Press 2006 Stephen A. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach and Oliver Berghof.</ref> Modern researchers say it is related to Welsh ''gallu'',{{cn|date=October 2023}} {{langx|kw|galloes}},<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.howlsedhes.co.uk/cgi-bin/diskwe.pl|last=Howlsedhes Services|title=Gerlyver Sempel|access-date=31 December 2016|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170127015146/http://www.howlsedhes.co.uk/cgi-bin/diskwe.pl|archive-date=27 January 2017}}</ref> "capacity, power",<ref>[[Pierre-Yves Lambert]], ''La langue gauloise'', éditions Errance, 1994, {{p.|194}}.</ref> thus meaning "powerful people".

Despite its superficial similarity, the normal English translation of ''Gallia'' since the Middle Ages, ''Gaul'', has a different origin than the Latin term. It stems from the French ''Gaule'', deriving from the [[Old Frankish]] ''*Walholant'' (via a Latinized form ''*Walula''),<ref>Ekblom, R., "Die Herkunft des Namens La Gaule" in: Studia Neophilologica, Uppsala, XV, 1942–43, nos. 1-2, pp. 291–301.</ref> literally the "Land of the Foreigners/Romans". ''*Walho-'' is a reflex of the [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] ''*[[walhaz]]'', "foreigner, Romanized person", an [[exonym]] applied by Germanic speakers to Celts and Latin-speaking people indiscriminately. It is [[cognate]] with the names [[Wales]], [[Cornwall]], [[Wallonia]], and [[Wallachia]].<ref>Sjögren, Albert, Le nom de "Gaule", in ''Studia Neophilologica'', Vol. 11 (1938/39) pp. 210–214.</ref> The Germanic ''w-'' is regularly rendered as ''gu-'' / ''g-'' in French (cf. ''guerre'' "war", ''garder'' "ward", ''Guillaume'' "William"), and the historic diphthong ''au'' is the regular outcome of ''al'' before a following consonant (cf. ''cheval'' ~ ''chevaux''). French ''Gaule'' or ''Gaulle'' cannot be derived from Latin ''Gallia'', since ''g'' would become ''j'' before ''a'' (cf. ''gamba'' > ''jambe''), and the diphthong ''au'' would be unexplained; the regular outcome of Latin ''Gallia'' is ''Jaille'' in French, which is found in several western place names, such as, [[La Jaille-Yvon]] and [[Saint-Mars-la-Jaille]].<ref>''[[Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology]]'' (OUP 1966), p. 391.</ref><ref name=Larousse>''Nouveau dictionnaire étymologique et historique'' (Larousse 1990), p. 336.</ref> Proto-Germanic ''*walha'' is derived ultimately from the name of the [[Volcae]].{{sfn|Koch |2006 |p=[https://archive.org/details/celticculturehis00koch_128/page/n567 532]}}

Also unrelated, in spite of superficial similarity, is the name ''[[Gael]]''.{{refn|1=''Gael'' is derived from [[Old Irish]] ''Goidel'' (borrowed, in turn, in the 7th century AD from [[History of the Welsh language|Primitive Welsh]] ''Guoidel''—spelled ''Gwyddel'' in [[Middle Welsh]] and [[Welsh language|Modern Welsh]]—likely derived from a [[Brythonic languages|Brittonic]] root ''*Wēdelos'' meaning literally "forest person, wild man"){{sfn|Koch |2006 |pp=775–776}}}} The [[Irish language|Irish]] word ''gall'' did originally mean "a Gaul", i.e. an inhabitant of Gaul, but its meaning was later widened to "foreigner", to describe the [[Viking]]s, and later still the [[Normans]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Medieval World |author1-link=Peter Linehan |last=Linehan |first=Peter |author2=Janet L. Nelson |year=2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-30234-0 |volume=10 |page=393 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ReIdkk5pEMsC&pg=PA393 }}</ref> The [[dichotomic]] words ''gael'' and ''gall'' are sometimes used together for contrast, for instance in the 12th-century book ''[[Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib]]''.

As adjectives, English has the two variants: ''Gaulish'' and ''Gallic''. The two adjectives are used synonymously, as "pertaining to Gaul or the Gauls", although the Celtic language group once spoken in Gaul is predominantly known as [[Gaulish language|Gaulish]].