On Wed, 19 Sep 2001, Laurent de Segur wrote: > Things are getting confusing. Great Britain used to be called Britain by the > Romans (so if someone still does on this list, he must be very old.) Great > was not just added to include other places. Great Britain is just the modern > and correct way to call it. This or you can use UK, a synonym with Great > Britain which includes England, Scotland and Wales as well as other smaller > islands acquired by the Brits through historical battles and trades with the > French and Europe. One I know about personally is the isle of Wight: great > place for relaxing BTW.
Essentially, 'United Kingdom' is a political designation, 'Great Britain' is a geographical one. Other than that, the distinctions between the two are fairly minor... :) For my part, I don't consider Northern Ireland part of Great Britain, but I do consider it part of the United Kingdom. <shrug> Steve Langasek postmodern programmer
