is the medieval Welsh name for a region of Britain (). The exact borders are unknown, but some modern scholars hypothesize it ran south and east of a line extending from the Humber Estuary to the Severn Estuary, exclusive of Cornwall and Devon. The people of Lloegyr were called without distinction of ethnicity, the term applying to both Britons and Anglo-Saxons.
The modern form of the word is ( or ) and it has become generalised through the passage of time to become the Welsh word for "England" as a whole, and not restricted to its original, smaller extent. The word has been anglicised and Latinised into such forms as , , and , among others, and is perhaps most widely recognised as the name of King Arthur's realm in the body of literature known as the Matter of Britain. The word is known to date from the 10th century or earlier, as it appears in the literary ., The Four Ancient Books of Wales, vol. 2, multiple references.
Borders Welsh antiquarians of the 18th and 19th centuries hypothesized that the borders of Lloegyr ran roughly on a line from the Humber Estuary, continuing southwestwards and connecting to the Severn Estuary. The line continues south across the estuary, crossing South West England such that Cornwall and Devon are excluded from . The division is mentioned in literature (e.g., the Welsh Triads), Triads of the Isle of Britain, beginning with Triad 2 and including others. and is supported by the works of respected historians such as John Rhŷs's Celtic Britain, Celtic Britain and John Edward Lloyd's A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest., A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest
While Geoffrey of Monmouth invented fanciful characters and places in his stories of and its eponymous king Locrinus, he also showed that he was aware that the actual boundary of was known to run between the Humber and Severn estuaries, and that Cornwall was distinct from Loegria. Chronicle of the Kings of Britain: ... When Brutus was dead, his sons partitioned the island amongst themselves; Locrinus as eldest son, took, as his share, the middle portion, and therefore this part was called Loegr, in reference to his name. The portion beyond the Severn fell to the lot of Camber, and from his name received that of Cambria. The third portion, which extends northwards from the Humber to Penrhyn Bladon, and is now called Scotland, was taken by Albanactus, and from his name called Albany. Thus they all reigned at one and the same time." Chronicle of the Kings of Britain: " ... When the districts they were to govern were assigned to them, that of York comprehended Deira and Bernicia, and all the country north of the Humber; that of London, Loegria and Cornwall, as far as the Severn; and that of Caerleon, Wales, from the Severn upwards, and a superiority over the other two."
Etymology The exact origin of the word is uncertain and has spawned a great deal of speculation. 12th-century author Geoffrey of Monmouth offered an etymology in his , deriving the names of Cambria, Loegria, and Albany from the sons of Brutus of Troy: Camber, Locrinus, and Albanactus, respectively, and makes them the eponymous kings of Wales/Cambria (Camber), England/Loegria (Locrinus), and Scotland/Albany (Albanactus). In 1982, noted linguist Eric Hamp suggested that could be derived from a Proto-Celtic compound , meaning 'having a nearby border, being from near the border'. Ranko Matasović prefers to see as coming from a Brittonic collective noun meaning 'warriors', the root of which he proposes gave Old Irish 'warrior' (though some scholars regard the Old Irish word as a loan from Late Latin 'layman; of the people'), from a Proto-Indo-European root 'war'. The suffix found in numerous Welsh ethnic names, including , is thought to possibly be derived from the Latin suffix according to some. Richard Coates makes a suggestion which agrees semantically with Matasović's, but proposes instead that it is borrowed from West Germanic (i.e. pre-Old English) 'performers of exploits, players (in a military sense), warriors'.
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