Armorica
Armorica or
Aremorica is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul between the Seine and Loire rivers, that includes the Brittany peninsula, extending inland to an indeterminate point and down the Atlantic coast. The toponym is based on the Gaulish phrase
are-mori "on/at sea", made into the Gaulish place name
Aremorica (
*are-mor-ika ) "Place by the Sea". The suffix
-ika was first used to create adjectival forms and then, names (See regions as Pays d'Ouche <
Utica, Perche <
Pertica ). The original designation was vague, including a large part of what became Normandy in the 10th century and, in some interpretations, the whole of the coast down to the Garonne river. Later, the term became restricted to Brittany. In Breton (which belongs to the Brythonic branch of the Insular Celtic languages, along with Welsh and Cornish), "on sea" is
war vor (Welsh
ar y môr), though the older form
arvor is used to refer to the coastal regions of Brittany, in contrast to
argoad (
ar "on/at",
coad "forest" ) for the inland regions.