Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • A constituent country of the United Kingdom comprising the northern part of the island of Great Britain as well as the Hebrides, Shetland Islands, and Orkney Islands. Inhabited by Picts in prehistoric times, parts of the region were subsequently settled by Anglo-Saxons, Gaels, and Scandinavians. In the ninth century most of Scotland was unified into one kingdom, but conflicts with England soon erupted, leading to a series of bloody wars. When James VI, son of Mary Queen of Scots, succeeded to the English throne in 1603, the two kingdoms were united. Scotland became a part of the kingdom of Great Britain by a parliamentary act of 1707. Edinburgh is the capital and Glasgow the largest city.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A country in northwest Europe to the north of England and forming part of the United Kingdom.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun one of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; located on the northern part of the island of Great Britain; famous for bagpipes and plaids and kilts

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old English Scotland ("Ireland", later also "Scotland", literally "land of the Scots"), equivalent to Scot +‎ land. Based on Latin word Scotus meaning Gael.

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