Belgium

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A Western European state with borders on the North Sea, celebrated for its cultural diversity, trilingual communities, notable cities like Antwerp and Bruges, and its international diplomatic influence
2. A nation situated in Western Europe known for its multilingual population and historical cities
3. A sovereign state located between France, Germany, and the Netherlands, recognized for its cultural heritage

Etymology: The name "Belgium" carries the memory of a tribe that Julius Caesar described more than two thousand years ago. Caesar's "Commentaries" on the Gallic War opens by saying that the Belgae were the bravest of the peoples of Gaul, living in the north, closest to the Germans across the Rhine. The Romans later took that tribal name and turned it into a province, Gallia Belgica, which covered a large swath of what is now northern France, Belgium, Luxembourg and parts of the Netherlands and Germany. The adjective "Belgica" was then shortened in Latin to a plain place name, and English borrowed that form, so the modern country is named after a region that was never a single nation. The tribal name itself is Celtic, likely connected to the Proto-Celtic "belgos", which probably meant something like "angry" or "fierce". The Latin ending "-icus" was added to form the adjective "belgicus", meaning "of the Belgae", and the phrase "Gallia Belgica" literally meant "Belgian Gaul". Over the centuries the Latin name for the province kept its shape while the territory changed hands repeatedly, passing through the Roman Empire, the Frankish kingdoms and later the Burgundian and Habsburg lands.