Cornwall ( ; ˈkɛɹnɔʊ) is the most southwesterly county in England, on the peninsula that lies to the west of the River Tamar. The administrative centre and only city is Truro. Cornwall covers an area of 1,376 square miles (3,563 km²), including the Isles of Scilly, located 28 miles (45 km) offshore. Cornwall has a population of 513,528, with a relatively low population density of 373 people per square mile (144 /km²).

Cornwall is noted for its wild moorland landscapes, its extensive and varied coastline and its mild climate. Also notable is Cornwall's Stone Age and industrial archaeology, especially its historic mining landscape, a World Heritage Site. Tourism therefore forms a significant part (24%) of the local economy; however, Cornwall is one of the poorest areas in the United Kingdom (62% of the UK average wage) with the lowest per capita contribution to the national economy.

Cornwall is the homeland of the Cornish people and is also considered one of the six "Celtic nations" by many residents and scholars. Some inhabitants question the present constitutional status of Cornwall and a self-government movement seeks greater autonomy for Cornwall.

Etymology

The name Cornwall comes from a merger of two different terms from separate languages.

The Roman term for the Celtic tribe which inhabited what is now Cornwall at the time of Roman rule, Cornovii, came from a Brythonic tribal name which gave modern Cornish Kernow, also known as Corneu to the Brythons. This could be from two sources; the term may be related to the common Celtic root cern, or the Latin cornu, both of which mean "horn" or "peninsula", suggestive of the shape of Cornwall's landmass. The Cornovii were sufficiently established for their territory to be recorded as Cornubia by AD 700, the name meaning "people of the horn", and remained as such into the Middle Ages.

During the 6th and 7th centuries, the name Cornubia became corrupted by extensive changes in the Old English language. The Anglo-Saxons provided the suffix wealas, meaning "foreigners", creating the term Corn-wealas. Some historians note that this was the word for Wales, however it is understood that the term applied instead to all Brythonic peoples and lands, who were considered foreign by the Anglo-Saxons. As Cornwall was known as West Wales and present-day Wales as North Wales during those times, the "Wales" meaning is probable.

History

main: Timeline of Cornish history

The present human history of Cornwall begins with the reoccupation of Britain after the last ice age. The pre-Roman inhabitants included speakers of a Celtic language that would develop into the Brythonic language Cornish. After a period of Roman rule, Cornwall reverted to independent Celtic chieftains. The first account of Cornwall comes from the Sicilian Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (c.90 BC–c.30 BC), supposedly quoting or paraphrasing the fourth-century BC geographer Pytheas, who had sailed to Britain: