Etymology: < classical Latin britannica, name of an unidentified plant (see below), use as noun (short for herba britannica British plant) of feminine of Britannicus Britannic adj., although the reason for the name is unclear. Compare Hellenistic Greek βρεττανική (Dioscorides).According to Pliny ( Nat. Hist. 25. 20f.) the Frisians pointed out the plant to the Romans in the early 1st cent. a.d., as a cure for scurvy, but Dioscorides gives no indication that the plant was foreign to the Graeco-Roman world. The plant mentioned by Pliny is now most frequently identified as either water-dock ( Rumex hydrolaphatum; e.g. by Lewis and Short) or scurvy grass ( Cochlearia anglica). It has been suggested that the Latin word was originally unconnected with the adjective Britannicus , and instead shows a rationalization of either a place name in Frisia or a Germanic compound ( < the base of brit v.² + the base of tooth n., after one of the symptoms of scurvy). It is impossible to confirm or reject either of these suggestions, but compare Pliny's reference to Britain in Nat. Hist. 27 (i.e. the passage translated in quot. 1601). In Old English used with Latin case inflections (see quot. OE²). The word was evidently reborrowed in the 16th cent., and there is no continuity of use with Old English and early Middle English. All uses in English can be traced back to classical sources. The precise history of the use in Pseudo-Apuleius (translated in quots. OE¹, OE²) is unclear, but it shows influence from Pliny; the entry in the Grete Herball (compare quot. 1526) parallels the information given by Pseudo-Apuleius. Maplet (compare quot. 1567) cites Dioscorides. All texts quoted below from the 17th cent. onwards explicitly refer to Pliny.

Etymology: < classical Latin Britannicus of Britain, British ( < Britannia Britain n.² (compare Britannia n.) + -icus -ic suffix). Compare Middle French britannique , britanique of Brittany, of Great Britain, British (a1495; French britannique , now only with reference to Great Britain). Compare earlier Britannical adj. Compare also earlier Britannish adj., Britannian adj., and British adj.