Bruttium

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An ancient region occupying the toe of the Italian peninsula, inhabited by the Bruttii people in classical times
2. A historical district in southern Italy corresponding roughly to modern Calabria, known in antiquity for its Italic inhabitants
3. The name of an old territory on the southwestern tip of the Italian mainland, settled by a people of the same name

Etymology: "Bruttium" is the Latin name for the toe of the Italian peninsula, the region now called Calabria. Latin "Bruttium" was borrowed into English without any change in form, so the word still looks exactly as it did in Roman texts. It names a place rather than a concept, and it survives mainly in historical and geographical writing about southern Italy. The region took its name from the Bruttii, a people who lived there in antiquity and who, according to Roman sources, had broken away from the Lucanians. Their name is what English speakers are borrowing when they use the word, so the term carries an ancient ethnic label rather than any later English meaning.