國家(政治上的整體)
把那片被劃出範圍的土地看成一個政治單位:有邊界、有人民、有政府,於是成了「國家」。這是 country 今天最常用的一面。
a nation · noun · A1
An area of land with its own people and government, like Taiwan, Japan, or France.
國家
You can picture 'country' as a single stretch of land seen as one whole — a place with its own boundary, marked off from what lies around it. From that one idea two pictures grow: the land seen as a political whole (a nation with its people and government) and the land seen as physical ground (fields and open space outside the towns).
From Old French 'contrée' / Medieval Latin '(terra) contrata', literally 'the land lying opposite / spread out before you' — the land you see stretching out in front. That single 'spread-out land' sense later split toward both 'nation' and 'open countryside'.
源自古法語 contrée、中世紀拉丁語 (terra) contrata,字面是「在你面前展開、對面的那片土地」——你眼前一路延伸出去的地。後來這個「攤開在眼前的土地」一邊走向「國家」,一邊走向「鄉間」。
etymonline.com/word/country
Three branches
國家(政治上的整體)
把那片被劃出範圍的土地看成一個政治單位:有邊界、有人民、有政府,於是成了「國家」。這是 country 今天最常用的一面。
a nation · noun · A1
An area of land with its own people and government, like Taiwan, Japan, or France.
國家
鄉間/某種地帶(實際的地面)
回到「土地」最素樸的一面:不看政治,只看實際的地面。城鎮之外那片開闊的地,或某一種地形、某一片地帶,都是這一面。
the countryside · noun · A1
Land away from towns and cities, with fields, farms, and open space.
鄉下 / 鄉間
鄉村音樂
從「鄉間」這片地再轉一步:一種發源自美國南方鄉間、唱日常生活的流行音樂,就用那片地的名字來命名。
country music · noun · A1
A style of popular music from the southern United States, with guitars and singing about everyday life.
鄉村音樂
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法,原文照列,我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的;有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
countrynoun/ˈkʌntɹi/
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 undefined extent; a region, a district.
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.
informalThe spirit of the country (rural places): the spirit of country folkways; those folkways.
businessminingThe rock through which a vein of ore or coal runs.
countryadj/ˈkʌntɹi/
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.
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形:
資料來源:英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary(CC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。