Editing Picts (section)

==Etymology==

The [[Latin]] word {{Lang|la|Picti}} first occurs in a [[panegyric]], a formal eulogising speech from 297<ref>{{harvnb|Nixon|Rodgers|1994|p=126}}</ref> and is most commonly explained as meaning 'painted'<ref>{{harvnb|Fraser|2009|p=47}}</ref> (from Latin {{Lang|la|pingere}} 'to paint';<ref>{{harvnb|Lewis|Short|1879}} [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3Dpingo pingo], on Perseus Digital Library</ref> {{Lang|la|pictus}}, 'painted', cf. [[Greek language|Greek]] {{Lang|grc|πυκτίς}} {{Lang|grc-latn|pyktis}}, 'picture'<ref>{{harvnb|Liddell|Scott|1940}} [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dpukti%2Fs1 πυκτίς], on Perseus Digital Library</ref>). This is generally understood to be a reference to the practice of tattooing.<ref>{{harvnb|Fraser|2011|pp=25–27}}</ref> [[Claudian]], in his account of the Roman commander [[Stilicho]], written around 404, speaks of designs on the bodies of dying Picts, presumably referring to tattoos or body paint.<ref>{{harvnb|Clarkson|2016|p=31}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Holmes|1907}}</ref>  [[Isidore of Seville]] reports in the early seventh century that the practice was continued by the Picts.<ref>{{harvnb|Fraser|2009|p=335}}; {{harvnb|Barney|Lewis|Beach|Berghof|2010|p=198}}</ref> An alternative suggestion is that the Latin ''Picti'' was derived from a native form, perhaps related etymologically to the [[Gauls|Gallic]] [[Pictones]].<ref>{{harvnb|Watson|1926|pp=67–68}}</ref> 

The Picts were called ''Cruithni'' in [[Old Irish]] and ''Prydyn'' in [[Old Welsh]].<ref name="Fraser 2009 48">{{harvnb|Fraser|2009|p=48}}</ref> These are [[cognate|lexical cognates]], from the proto-Celtic *''kwritu'' 'form', from which *''Pretania'' (Britain) also derives. ''Pretani'' (and with it ''Cruithni'' and ''Prydyn'') is likely to have originated as a generalised term for any native inhabitant of Britain.<ref name="Fraser 2009 48"/> This is similar to the situation with the Gaelic name of Scotland, ''[[Alba]]'', which originally seems to have been a generalised term for Britain.<ref>{{harvnb|Fraser|2009|p=48}}; {{harvnb|Woolf|2007|pp=177–181}}</ref> It has been proposed that the Picts may have called themselves ''Albidosi'', a name found in the [[Chronicle of the Kings of Alba]] during the reign of [[Máel Coluim mac Domnaill]].<ref>{{harvnb|Broun|2005a|p=258}}, note 95; {{harvnb|Woolf|2007|pp=177–181}}</ref>