(June 26, 2016 at 2:39 pm)Tiberius Wrote:(June 26, 2016 at 2:26 pm)abaris Wrote: It's rather Great Britain for us. Or, if we're lazy, it's only England, although that doesn't cover all of it - as of yet. Hardly anyone uses the equivalent of UK, apart from a few news anchors and journalists to have another word at their disposal. For variety.
Really? When I lived there it was often called the UK, more so than the other words. "Great Britain" was used for the Olympics, which I thought was odd because Great Britain is the name of a single island (admittedly the largest in the British Isles), and presumably we had Northern Ireland competitors, perhaps even competitors from Guernsey, the Shetlands etc.
UK makes more sense as at least it's a shortening of the official name "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".
The reason for GB in the Olympics is because the OCI (the Irish Olympluc body) is, officially an all-Ireland body as with all sports bodies other than the soccer. There is a provision in place between the BOC & OCI that Northern athletes can represent Team GB if they want, but that precludes the BOC actively canvassing athletes.
Urbs Antiqua Fuit Studiisque Asperrima Belli
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