Origin and Usage
The word enclave entered the English jargon of diplomacy in 1868. It derives from French, which was then the lingua franca of diplomacy. The word enclave and a number of related words exist in French, Spanish and Portuguese with the meaning of "surrounded, included, embedded, fixed" and they all ultimately derive from the Latin "clavus" which had two related meanings. One was "nail" (which is embedded and surrounded) and another was a knot in the wood (which is also embedded and surrounded).
The word exclave is a logical extension created three decades later. Although the meanings of both words are close, an exclave may not necessarily be an enclave or vice versa. For example, Kaliningrad, an exclave of Russia, is not an enclave because it is surrounded not by one state, but by two: Lithuania and Poland; it also borders the Baltic Sea. Conversely, Lesotho is an enclave in South Africa, but it is not politically attached to anything else, meaning that it is not an exclave.
In British administrative history, subnational enclaves were usually called detachments or detached parts. In English ecclesiastic history, subnational enclaves were known as peculiars (see also Royal Peculiar).
A country surrounded by another but having access to the sea is not considered to be an enclave, regardless of size. For this reason Portugal is not an enclave of Spain, and Gambia is not an enclave of Senegal.
Read more about this topic: Enclave And Exclave
Famous quotes containing the words origin and/or usage:
“Someone had literally run to earth
In an old cellar hole in a byroad
The origin of all the family there.
Thence they were sprung, so numerous a tribe
That now not all the houses left in town
Made shift to shelter them without the help
Of here and there a tent in grove and orchard.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“...Often the accurate answer to a usage question begins, “It depends.” And what it depends on most often is where you are, who you are, who your listeners or readers are, and what your purpose in speaking or writing is.”
—Kenneth G. Wilson (b. 1923)