Brittain

plural Brittains

1. countableuncountableA surname from Anglo-Norman.
2. countableuncountableA neighbourhood of Akron, Ohio, United States, formerly a settlement in Springfield Township, Summit County, Ohio.
3. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Taylor County, West Virginia, United States.
4. countableobsoleteuncountableObsolete spelling of Britain.

   [T]his so famous and farre renown'd great Brittains Monarchy, had at one blowe endured a recouerlesse ruine, beeing ouerwhelmed in a sea of bloud; […]

   1606 August 14 (Gregorian calendar), [Edward] Coke, A Charge Delivered to the Grand Jury at the Assizes Holden at Norwich, 4th August, 1606; Containing a Just Delineation of Popery: and Other Valuable Documents, as Well for Rulers as for Subjects. […], London: […] J. J. Stockdale, […], published 1813, →OCLC, page 35

   1 more example

   Henry, by Mary Queen of Scots, had Issue James the Sixth, King of Brittain, by the propitious Grace of the Eternal God, born in a most auspicate and lucky Hour, to knit and unite in one Body of an Empire, the whole Island of Brittain, divided as well in it self, as it was heretofore from the rest of the World, and to lay a most sure Foundation of an everlasting Security, for our Heirs and the Posterity.

   1695, William Camden, A Second Edition of Camden's Description of Scotland, page 94

plural Brittains

1. obsoleteObsolete spelling of Britain.

   Sixtly, That this Realme was diuided into Shires and Counties, and thoſe Shires into Cities, Burroughs, and Townes, by the Bꝛittains.

   1628, Edw[ard] Coke, “Of Parceners”, in The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for the Societe of Stationers, →OCLC, book 3, chapter I, section 248, folio 168, recto

   2 more examples

   But since this custome was probably disused before their Invasion or Conquest, and the Romanes confessedly practised the same, since their possession of this Island, the most assured account will fall upon the Romanes, or Brittains Romanized.

   1658, Thomas Browne, chapter 2, in Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial, London: Hen. Brome, page 28

   This is the same Claudia Ruffina which the Poet Martial afterward so highly commended for her illustrious birth, beauty and exquisite perfection both in the Grecian and Roman literature, expressly declaring that she was a Brittain.

   1668, Serenus de Cressy, The Church-History of Brittany From the Beginning of Christianity to the Norman Conquest Under Roman Governours, Brittish Kings, the English-Saxon Heptarchy, the English-Saxon (and Danish) Monarchy, […], page 11