Gauln.adj.

Etymology: Originally < classical Latin Gallus (adjective) Gaulish, (noun) Gaulish person (see Gallo- comb. form¹); later remodelled in spelling (see β. forms) after the (etymologically unrelated) place name Gaul (French Gaule ), the name of an ancient territory centred on the region that later became France (see definition), also used (by extension) as a name for France in later periods ( < the Germanic base discussed at Welsh adj.). With use as adjective compare Gallic adj.¹Origin of modern spelling. While the modern pronunciation shows the expected development for this word (compare similarly the pronunciation of e.g. gall or pall ), and spellings with e.g. au or aw in early modern English are paralleled for e.g. gall n.¹, gall n.², and gall n.³, the eventual emergence of Gaul as the preferred spelling is due to association with the place name Gaul (contrast the modern spelling of gall , pall , etc.). Forms of the place name. While the place name Gaul is of a different etymology from the present word, this is not the case with the equivalent classical Latin name Gallia , which denotes the same ancient territory ( < Gallus or its probable Gaulish etymon + classical Latin -ia -ia suffix¹ ). In French, the place name Gaule is attested from the 12th cent. onwards. In English, the equivalent Gaul is attested from at least the mid 15th cent. (earliest as Gaule ; apparently < French). The alternative place name Gallia ( < classical Latin Gallia ) is already attested in the Old English period (see below), but is now much less common; additionally, a form †Galle is found in late Middle English and early modern English. Forms of the place name with final -s are also occasionally found both in Middle French (e.g. Gaules ) and in Middle English and early modern English (e.g. Galles and Gaules ), and in English these can sometimes be difficult to distinguish from plural uses of the noun (compare quot. 1481 at sense A. 1β. ). Old English parallels. Old English Galli (plural) inhabitants of Gaul (rare) is apparently an independent borrowing (the ending -i is after classical Latin Gallī, nominative plural of Gallus Gaulish person: see above); the more common form of the ethnonym is Gallie (plural; also apparently uninflected as Gallia). The place name Gallia is attested in English from the Old English period onwards (in Old English also as Gallie (plural) with reference to the Gallic provinces, after Latin Galliae, nominative plural).