country
Meanings
- The territory of a nation; a sovereign state or a region once independent and still distinct in institutions, language, etc.
- An area of land of undefined extent; a region, a district.
- An area of land of indefinite extent or of more or less definite extent in relation to human occupation, especially characterized by its particular physical features, or its suitability for a particular activity or connected with its population (by race, dialect, culture, etc.) or a person, especially a writer, or their works.
- A rural area, as opposed to a town or city; the countryside.
- The inhabitants or people of a district, region, or nation; the populace, the public.
- Traditional lands of Indigenous people with embedded cultural, spiritual, cosmological, ecological, and physical attributes and values.
- Ellipsis of country music.
- The spirit of the country (rural places): the spirit of country folkways; those folkways.
- The rock through which a vein of ore or coal runs.
- From or in the countryside, connected with it, or typical of it.
- Of or connected to country music.
- Originating in India rather than being imported from abroad.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Proto-Indo-European *-teros Proto-Italic *-teros Proto-Italic *komterosder. Proto-Italic *komterād Latin contrā Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos Proto-Italic *-ātos Latin -ātus Latin -āta Vulgar Latin *(terra) contrāta Old French contreebor. Middle English contre English country Inherited from Middle English contre, borrowed from Old French contree, from Vulgar Latin *(terra) contrāta (“facing land”), from Latin contrā (“against”) + -āta (noun-forming suffix). Cognate with Scots kintra. Unrelated to county. Displaced native English land in some of its senses. From around 1300 as "area surrounding a walled city or town; the open country." By early 16th century the sense was applied mostly to rural areas, as opposed to towns and cities. Compare typologically Russian страна́ (straná), сторона́ (storoná).