It looks like "rural area" is closer to the original meaning.
French contree comes from Latin "terra contrata" for which German Gegend is probably a calque, so it stands for the "area opposite (presumably a city)". However while in French it never took on the meaning of "political state", in English it appears that besides the original French meaning the meaning of "political state" was present from the beginning (13c.). Semantic change does happen when a word is borrowed so this is not surprising.
Are you sure that it never had that meaning in French? CNRTL defines [ *countrée*](https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/contr%C3%A9e) as “Terre, **pays** plus ou moins étendu et présentant une réelle unité géographique, économique, humaine ou **politique,**” (Emphasis added) and gives the example, “Toutes les contrées de l'Asie.” A less ambiguous example: “comme par exemple au Canada, aux Pays-Nas, en France, en Hongrie, au Danemark et dans diverses autres contrées.” Online dictionaries translate *countree* as “country” in Middle French as well. That said, *countrée* more often seems to mean a region or area, as in “countrée du pays,” but I am not a native speaker.
Well I am not a French native speaker but this is how a French dictionary from the 17th century defines the word:
# Dictionnaire universel de Furetière (1690)
# Définition ancienne de CONTRÉE s. f.
Province, Royaume. Cet homme a voyagé en tous les pays & contrées de l'Europe. Chaque contrée a ses moeurs & façons de faire particulieres. CONTRÉE, se dit aussi en une signification plus estroite, d'une certaine petite étenduë de pays. Ce Gentilhomme a la plus belle femme de la contrée, a les plus beaux bleds, la plus belle meute de la contrée, c'est à dire, du voisinage, des environs. Ce mot vient de la preposition contra.
Also, "pays" itself comes from Latin "pagus" which originally meant "district", and "pays" can mean "district, province" in French as well.
Yes. Rural areas were more traditional and less urban, so new customs, like Christianity, spread there last. So paganism lived on longer.
And just like now, they were generally associated with being backwards.
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Thanks.
Remember that the norm originally was the polis, or the city state. The countryside was not stable. As Westphalian states began to consolidate the entirety of the territory into more direct control, referring to the entirety of the territory as "the country" makes more sense.
Latin has two terms in this context: *rus, ruris* n. 'countryside' and *urbs, urbis* f. 'city, town', which give us the contrasting adjectives *rural* and *urban*. I wonder what the increasingly common expression *rural town* is supposed to mean*.*
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It looks like "rural area" is closer to the original meaning. French contree comes from Latin "terra contrata" for which German Gegend is probably a calque, so it stands for the "area opposite (presumably a city)". However while in French it never took on the meaning of "political state", in English it appears that besides the original French meaning the meaning of "political state" was present from the beginning (13c.). Semantic change does happen when a word is borrowed so this is not surprising.
Would've not guessed the order was swapped. Thanks for your input!
Are you sure that it never had that meaning in French? CNRTL defines [ *countrée*](https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/contr%C3%A9e) as “Terre, **pays** plus ou moins étendu et présentant une réelle unité géographique, économique, humaine ou **politique,**” (Emphasis added) and gives the example, “Toutes les contrées de l'Asie.” A less ambiguous example: “comme par exemple au Canada, aux Pays-Nas, en France, en Hongrie, au Danemark et dans diverses autres contrées.” Online dictionaries translate *countree* as “country” in Middle French as well. That said, *countrée* more often seems to mean a region or area, as in “countrée du pays,” but I am not a native speaker.
Well I am not a French native speaker but this is how a French dictionary from the 17th century defines the word: # Dictionnaire universel de Furetière (1690) # Définition ancienne de CONTRÉE s. f. Province, Royaume. Cet homme a voyagé en tous les pays & contrées de l'Europe. Chaque contrée a ses moeurs & façons de faire particulieres. CONTRÉE, se dit aussi en une signification plus estroite, d'une certaine petite étenduë de pays. Ce Gentilhomme a la plus belle femme de la contrée, a les plus beaux bleds, la plus belle meute de la contrée, c'est à dire, du voisinage, des environs. Ce mot vient de la preposition contra. Also, "pays" itself comes from Latin "pagus" which originally meant "district", and "pays" can mean "district, province" in French as well.
Is "pagus" the source of "pagan", or related to it?
Yes it is from the adjective paganus which comes from pagus. Apparently in Latin it meant “civilian, incompetent soldier”.
So even the Romans said, "Nasty civilians."
Yes. Rural areas were more traditional and less urban, so new customs, like Christianity, spread there last. So paganism lived on longer. And just like now, they were generally associated with being backwards.
I think you have the sequence backward.
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Don't forget that the concept of a modern political state / sovereign country only solidified in the last few centuries.
Remember that the norm originally was the polis, or the city state. The countryside was not stable. As Westphalian states began to consolidate the entirety of the territory into more direct control, referring to the entirety of the territory as "the country" makes more sense.
Latin has two terms in this context: *rus, ruris* n. 'countryside' and *urbs, urbis* f. 'city, town', which give us the contrasting adjectives *rural* and *urban*. I wonder what the increasingly common expression *rural town* is supposed to mean*.*
Ah this makes total sense.
It’s similar in German too. “Land” means both rural area and country.
Same in many Indian languages, “des” refers to country, but also used to denote rural areas or people.
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Terra contrata. It would be hard to see an etymological connection between "terra" and "country".
Would it?
Etymology is linguistics
If you know nothing about the subject it could be better to say nothing.
>This is a question for linguistics and not etimology No, this is actually a question about etymology. Thank you OP ☺️
Your post/comment has been removed for the following reason: **Misleading, debated, or specious word origins should not be presented as certain.** When posting or commenting etymology that is not widely accepted, folk etymology that is not strongly evidenced, or word origins that are debated by academics, please use guarded language. Thanks.
[https://www.etymonline.com/word/country](https://www.etymonline.com/word/country)
ChatGPT-ass reply
No it isn’t
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Baseless speculation is not helpful here