Fatherland is the country where you, or your family, come from — the land of your fathers, in the old way of saying it. People use it when they want a proud or heavy feeling about “my country,” not just a name on a map. You will meet it in old poems, in speeches, and in stories about war or leaving home. It is more formal than country, and more emotional. Though actually, it is not an everyday word for most English speakers now. Many people say homeland or home country instead, which feel softer. In some places the word carries a dark shadow, because German Vaterland was used a lot in fierce, loud country-pride talk in the last century, and fatherland can still make some listeners think of that. It almost always means a nation, not a town, a farm, or a house.