country
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: kŭn'tri
ipa: /ˈkʌntɹi/
ipa: [ˈkʰʌnt̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷi]
ipa: /ˈkɐntɹi/
note: Indic
ipa: /kəɳʈɾi/
rhymes: -ʌntɹi
note: for ESL speakers
enpr: koun'tri
ipa: /ˈkaʊntɹi/
note: for ESL speakers
rhymes: -aʊntɹi
Forms: form: countries
form: contree
form: countrey
form: contrey
form: countre
form: countrie
form: counterie
form: counthry
form: cuntry
Etymology: From Middle English contre, contree, contreie, from Old French contree, cuntrede, from Vulgar Latin *(terra) contrāta (“(land) lying opposite; (land) spread before one”) (also in Medieval Latin as "country, region"), from Latin contrā (“against, opposite”) (whence contra-). 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).
Senses: examples: text: By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.
ref: 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 5, in Death on the Centre Court:
text: But that expropriation of the Third World, [that] has been going on for 400 years, brings us to another revelation: namely, that the Third World is not poor. You don't go to poor countries to make money. There are very few poor countries in this world. Most countries are rich: the Philippines are rich, Brazil is rich, Mexico is rich, Chile is rich; only the people are poor. But there's billions to be made there, to be carved out, and to be taken; there's been billions for 400 years! The Capitalist European and North American powers have carved out and taken the timber, the flax, the hemp, the cocoa, the rum, the tin, the copper, the iron, the rubber, the bauxite, the slaves, and the cheap labour. They have taken out of these countries. These countries are not underdeveloped; they're overexploited!
ref: 1986 April 15, Michael Parenti, 02:53 from the start, in U.S. interventionism, the Third World, and the USSR, Boulder, Colorado:
text: It is a beautiful country of rolling hills, fertile valleys, and a thousand rivers and streams which keep the landscape green even in winter.
ref: 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 3:
text: These days corporate Germany looks rather different. Volkswagen, the country’s leading carmaker, wants to be the world’s biggest by 2018.
ref: 2010, The Economist, 3 Feb 2011
text: The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies.
ref: 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:
text: Most foreigners who have heard of Bhutan know two things: the country charges international visitors a $100/day sustainable development fee (aka tourist tax), and that it is the birthplace of the Gross National Happiness Index, a system intended to look after the well-being of citizens and the environment.
ref: 2024 July 4, Lilit Marcus, “This country has a national happiness index. But what is it really like to live there?”, in CNN:
glosses: The territory of a nation; a sovereign state or a region once independent and still distinct in institutions, language, etc.
examples: text: We walk along flat, open country, red dirt and spinifex grass, a few short trees[…].
ref: 2010 March 7, David Vann, The Observer:
glosses: An area of land of undefined extent; a region, a district.
examples: text: Thomas Hardy country
text: Hikers love the wild country that lies northwest of this river confluence.
text: This is condor country – the only region this far east where you can see the magnificent vulture – and a small national park straddling the passes, El Condorito, is a good stopover for walkers and birders.
ref: 2007 February 17, Chris Moss, The Guardian:
glosses: 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.
examples: text: I was borne and brought up in the Countrie, and amidst husbandry[…].
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 17, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
text: I have always thought that one of the main reasons for the popularity of blood sports in the country is the pointlessness of going outdoors with no purpose or destination in mind.
ref: 2000 March 4, Alexander Chancellor, The Guardian:
text: She grew up in Chang-hua, a city in central Taiwan with a decidedly country flavor.
ref: 2006 May, James B. Weld, Difficulties in Learning English as a Second or Foreign Language, Regis University, page 37:
qualifier: usually preceded by “the”
glosses: A rural area, as opposed to a town or city; the countryside.
examples: text: For all the country, in a general voice,
Cried hate upon him.
ref: c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2, Act 4, Scene 1, sourced from Open Source Shakespeare, line 2344:
glosses: The inhabitants or people of a district, region, or nation; the populace, the public.
examples: text: "Me like my country — no much too hot, no much too cold. By and bye, white fellow come — soldier-man come. White fellow say, this our land, that our land — ALL country our land. Black fellow say no! my country no white fellow's country, and black fellow take spear.
ref: 1842 February 16, The Inquirer, Perth, page 5, column 2:
text: "Yewi," he said, "me bin longa Fanny Bay gaol five years." On my asking why they put him in gaol he replied. "Australia your country, ain't it?" I replied, "Yes, him my country all right." "Well," he then said, "this my country here. Brinken country other side of the river ain't it?" "That's right," said I. "Well," said Jack, "supposem Japanese come longa this country and you killem, you good man, but suppose Brinken come longa my country here, and I kill him, police man put me longa Fanny Bay for five years. That is the law."
ref: 1945 September 27, The Chronicle, Adelaide, page 35, column 4:
text: "It demonstrates that having Indigenous people on country managing their lands, delivering environmental benefits for all Australians is an important asset for the national good."
ref: 2008 July 23, The Torres News, page 5, column 1:
text: Milgin says living on country, with elders, makes Aboriginal people "strong". That's backed up by a 2011 report on Aboriginal homelands by Amnesty International that found that living on homelands was connected to better health outcomes and drug rehabilitation.
ref: 2015 March 11, Calla Wahlquist, “Of three remote communities here, why are only the two Aboriginal ones under threat?”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 07 Oct 2022:
text: What country do you live/work on? I work on Yuggera Yuggarapul country and I'm from Darwin, Larrakia country.
ref: 2021 July 8, The Air Force News, page 16, column 2:
glosses: Traditional lands of Indigenous people with embedded cultural, spiritual, cosmological, ecological, and physical attributes and values.
examples: text: a country song
text: a country singer
text: a country festival
glosses: Ellipsis of country music.
examples: text: you can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy
glosses: The spirit of the country (rural places): the spirit of country folkways; those folkways.
topics: business
mining
coordinate_terms: gangue#Noun
overburden#Noun
glosses: The rock through which a vein of ore or coal runs.
Synonyms: word: country
word: sovereign country
word: sovereign state
Hypernyms: word: entity
word: political entity
word: organization
Hyponyms: word: developed country
word: developing country
word: federal state
word: federation
word: first-world country
word: HIC
word: member country
word: mini-country
word: old country
word: second-world country
word: third-world country
word: rich country
word: poor country
word: unitary state
word: LMIC
word: island country
word: archipelagic country
Meronyms: word: administrative division
word: constituent country
word: federated state
word: landscape
word: landform
word: province
word: settlement
word: person
word: inhabitant
word: president
word: government minister [⇒ thesaurus]}
word: government
word: government ministry
word: executive
word: legislature
word: chamber
word: parliament
word: senate
word: judiciary
word: military
word: police
Derived terms: accession country
across country
alt-country
alternative country
another country heard from
anticountry
a prophet has no honor in his own country
a prophet is not without honor save in his own country
backcountry
back country
Black Country
bro country
bro-country
Constable country
constituent country
countrification
countrify
country & western
country-and-western
country and western
countryball
country beam
country beer
country-blues
country blues
country bookie
country box
country bumpkin
country captain
country club
country code
country cousin
country damage
country-damaged
country-dance
country dance
country dancing
country dweller
countryfication
country fig
countryfolk
country-fried
country-fried steak
countryful
country gentleman
country gravy
country ham
countryhood
country house
countryhuman
countryish
country Joan
country lane
countryless
countrylike
countrymade
countryman
countrymate
country merchant
country mile
country mouse
country music
country of origin
country of provenance
country park
countryperson
country pop
country punk
country rap
country risk
country road
country-rock
country rock
country sausage
country seat
country ship
countryship
country-side
countryside
country side
country stop
country store
country team
countryward
countrywards
countrywear
country-western
country-western music
countrywide
country wife
country wine
countrywoman
cross country
cross-country
cross-country ski
cross-country skier
cross-country skiing
cross country skiing
cuntry
developed country
Elvis country
flyover country
foreign country
free country
fresh country egg
fresh country eggs
frontcountry
go country
God's country
God's own country
go to the country
hill country blues
home country
host country
in-country
in country
intercountry
intracountry
it's a free country
line of country
live off the country
Lowcountry
microcountry
mini-independent country
model country
mother country
multicountry
neotraditional country
new country project
noncountry
Nordic country
north country
old-time country
outlaw country
outside country
pure country
safe third country
socialism in one country
step-country
third country
tiger country
transcountry
Trump country
up the country people
X-country
Related terms: word: Americo-
word: Dano-
word: Franco-
word: Greco-
word: Hispano-
word: Japano-
word: Polono-
word: Russo-
word: Turko-
word: region
word: territory
word: :Category:en:Countries
word: Appendix:Countries and territories of the world
word: Appendix:English nationality prefixes
word: Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class V § 737a. Government