You can think of countryman as a man named by the land he belongs to. First say which land you mean, and the word tells you which kind of belonging you are talking about. If the land is a nation, he is one of your own people. If the land is the fields outside the towns, he is a man who lives there and lives that life.
countryman 可以想成「用一塊土地來稱呼一個人」。你得先指定是哪一塊土地，這個字才知道你在講哪一種關係。如果那塊土地是「國家」，他就是跟你同一國的人，所以前面要放 my、his、our。如果那塊土地是「鄉間」，他就是住在那裡、過那種日子的人。country 這個字本身就有這兩層意思，countryman 也就跟著分成兩邊。
From the word’s history
Wiktionary records countryman as country + -man. The two modern meanings follow the two meanings of country itself: a nation, and the land outside the towns.
Wiktionary 記錄 countryman 來自 country 加上 -man。今天的兩個意思，正好跟著 country 自己的兩個意思走：一個是「國家」，一個是「鄉間」。所以這不是比喻，而是同一個組合裡的第一個字被讀成了不同的意思。
Wiktionary, "countryman"
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