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==Etymology==
The etymology of [[Late Latin]] ''Scoti'' is unclear. It is not a Latin derivation, nor does it correspond to any known [[Goidelic languages|Goidelic (Gaelic)]] term the Gaels used to name themselves as a whole or a constituent population group. Several derivations have been conjectured, but none has gained general acceptance in mainstream scholarship. 

In the 19th century, Aonghas MacCoinnich proposed that ''Scoti'' came from Gaelic ''sgaothaich'', meaning 'crowd' or 'horde'.<ref>A. MacCoinnich, ''Eachdraidh na h-Alba'', Glasgow, 1867, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=04AQAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 18]-[https://books.google.com/books?id=04AQAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA19 19].</ref>

[[Charles Oman]] (1910) derived it from Gaelic ''scuit'', meaning someone cut off. He believed it referred to bands of outcast Gaelic raiders, suggesting that the Scots were to the Gaels what the [[Vikings]] were to the [[Norsemen|Norse]].<ref>C. Oman, ''A History of England before the Norman Conquest'', London, 1910, p. [https://archive.org/stream/englandbeforeno00oman#page/n7/mode/2up 157].</ref>

More recently, Philip Freeman (2001) has speculated on the likelihood of a group of raiders adopting a name from an [[Indo-European root]], *''skot'', citing the parallel in the [[Ancient Greek]] ''skotos'' (σκότος), meaning "darkness, gloom".<ref>P. Freeman, ''Ireland and the Classical World'', Austin, 2001, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZSHhfOM-5AEC&pg=PA93 93].</ref>

Linguist Kim McCone (2013) derives it from the Old Irish noun ''scoth'' meaning "pick", as in "the pick" of the population, the nobility, from an [[Archaic Irish]] reconstruction ''*skotī''.<ref>McCone, Kim (2013). "The Celts: questions of nomenclature and identity", in ''Ireland and its Contacts''. [[University of Lausanne]]. p.26</ref>

An origin has also been suggested in a word related to the English ''scot'' ("tax") and [[Old Norse]] ''skot''; this referred to an activity in ceremonies whereby ownership of land was transferred by placing a parcel of earth in the lap of a new owner,<ref>J. Truedson Demitz, ''[[Throne of a Thousand Years]]: Chronicles as Told by Erik, Son of Riste, Commemorating Sweden's Monarchy from 995–96 to 1995–1996'', Ludvika – Los Angeles, 1996, p. 9.</ref> whence 11th-century King [[Olof Skötkonung|Olaf]], one of Sweden's first known rulers, may have been known as a ''scot king''.<ref>L.O. Lagerqvist – N. Åberg, ''Öknamn och tillnamn på nordiska stormän och kungligheter'', Stockholm, 1997, p. 23 (etymology of [[epithet]]s of Nordic kings and magnates).</ref>