I'm prompted by a question on the origin of the word English. Being English myself, I pretty much know that one.
But "Latin"? Why call it that?
As soon as this question crossed my mind, I realised it wouldn't exactly be an easy thing to Google, so I'm not even going to try. Surely someone here knows.
Latin comes from the latin word Latinus which means "*of Latium".
Latium is the ancient name of Lazio, one of the several regions Italy is divided into, and where Rome, the capital, is situated.
EDIT: I uploaded another image that explains better the region and the position of Rome, the arrows and the names are mine. The other regions are indicated and the dots are the "capitals" (I don't know how it's in English) for each region.
This is what the Dictionary says about "Latium", just to be complete: "An ancient region in west central Italy, west of the Apennines and south of the Tiber River. Settled during the early part of the 1st millennium bc by a branch of the Indo-European people known as the Latini, it was dominated by Rome by the end of the 4th century bc."
Mount Latium, after which the region got its name, was named after godess Lati/Lat. The transcript "DEA LATI, LVCIUS URSEI" found on many temples, meaning "to goddess Lat I dedicate this“, referred to her. She was considered a Mother Goddess.
The Celts also worshipped her, the phrase "DIE LATI" meaning "to Lat" would be found on manu Celtic-built structures on the British Isles dedicated to her.
But the most well known people honored her were the Arabs who gave her the name Al-Lat, simply the feminine form in Arabic for "Allah" considerring her God's/Allah's wife, and being the mother Goddess the Mother of Baal/Pal/Apollo/Veles.
From the etymology it appears that her name comes from Arabic, worshipped later by other peoples, like many other Arabian Gods and Goddesses e.g. Assyra/Aphrodite, and Baal/Apollo and Naila and Isaf.
The Latins were the people living around the city of Rome. They were "absorbed" politically by the better-organized dwellers of that city, who nevertheless adopted much of their language and culture, and made them among the earliest "citizens" of the new Empire.
Put another way, the Latins "merged" with the Romans, but their language (or much of it) survived the "merger."
Connecting Latium (and thereby Latin) to a pre-Islamic goddess mentioned in the Coran (written in the 7th Century AD) is highly creative (even if not respectful to linguists, to Muslims and to Romans). So is the mention of this "Mount Latium". I live in Monterotondo, not far from Rome, please do not hesitate to give me the location of this mountain, unknown to all the people in the region, and I will drive there immediately ! Baci da bellissima lazio.
Oh, by the way : Lătĭum , ii, n. 2. lătus; Sanscr. root prath-, to spread or widen; cf. Lat. later, etc.; prop., the plains or flat-land; “by the ancients referred to latēre, because here Saturnus lay concealed from his son,” Ov. F. 1, 238; Verg. A. 8, 322; Arn. 4, 143; Lact. 1, 13; “or to Latinus,” the name of the mythical king, Varr. L. L. 5, § 32 Müll., a country of Italy, in which Rome was situated
in Charlton T. Lewis et Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1879
I have read that the word Latin is derived from latens, meaning 'hidden', & 'lut', meaning 'veil'. Source quoted as being a book by Pierre Sabak, a comparative linguist & symbologist.
