Whence came this name, it will be asked, and when was it first used? Not till well into the twelfth century do we find it, and there are various theories as to its origin. Its pictoresque derivation from a hero named Otger Cataló, who gave his name to the country which he saved from the Moors (or, as some say, from the Goths) must be dismissed as legendary. Equally attractive, but little more acceptable since it runs counter to phonological rule, is the derivation 'Goth(a)landia-Gotolaunia-Catalonia', 'the land of the Goths'. Most probably the correct explanation of the word is one which will hardly be palatable to die-hard Catalan nationalists -namely, that it is connected etymologically with the name of the 'land of castles', Castile.
Edgar Allison PEERS, Catalonia infelix, 1937.
