Baltic, Baltick

& s. [Etym. somewhat doubtful. The word was first used by Adam, canon of Bremen, at the end of the eleventh century. In Fr. Baltique; Port. Baltico; Mod. Lat. Mare Balticum. Probably from Sw. bält = a belt (BELT), in allusion to its form, and also to the fact that two of the straits connecting it with the ocean are called the Great and the Little "Belt." It has also been derived from Sclav. or Lettonian balt = white, from its being frozen part of the year; or from Baltus, an old king, or Baltea, the old name of an island.] A. As adjective: Pertaining to the sea described under B. "We know that it [the Scand in avian ice-sheet] not only filled the the Gulf of Bothnia, but occupied the whole area of the Baltic Sen." Geikie : The Great Ice Age , 2nd ed. (1877), p. 404. B. As substantive : An inland sea, enclosed by Sweden, Ru ia, Germany, and Denmark, and communicating with the German Ocean by the "Sound" and the Great and Little Belts. "Hence we may confidently infer that in the days of the aboriginal hunters and fishers, the ocean had freer acce than now to the Baltic ."-Lyell: Antiq. of Man , 4th ed. (1873), p. 14.