Breton

How to spell breton

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce breton

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does breton mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to Brittany in north-western France, its people, or their Celtic language.
2. nounA native or inhabitant of Brittany, or the Celtic language spoken there.

Breton in a sentence

• adjective

  The menu featured a traditional breton buckwheat pancake.

• noun

  As a proud breton, he flew the regional flag from his window.

• adjective

  She studied the breton language during her year in Quimper.

• noun

  The historian interviewed an elderly breton about coastal traditions.

Where does breton come from?

Language of origin: French

This word comes through French Breton, which traces back to the Latin Britto (plural Brittones), the Roman name for the Celtic-speaking Britons of the island of Britain. When groups of those Britons migrated across the Channel in the early medieval period to escape Anglo-Saxon settlement, they gave their name to the region of Brittany in north-western France, and the people and their Celtic language came to be called Breton. The root is ultimately the same Celtic source that also gave us Britain and Briton, which is why the spellings look so closely related. English adopted the French form, keeping the single -t- and the -on ending rather than anglicising it. The shared ancestry with Briton is the main spelling trap, since writers sometimes blend the two.

How the word is built

• Bret- (from Latin Britto, a Briton)
• -on (forming a national name via French)