west country
[west a.]
The western part of any country; the district or region towards the west; spec. of England or of Scotland.
Usually the remoter counties west (or south-west) of the speaker, or of London (in Scotland west of Edinburgh); sometimes spec. the south-western counties (Somerset, Devon, etc.).
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xi. iii. (Bodl. MS.) In þe est londes and contreyes is muche more plente of fruytes and floures þanne in þe northe and in þe weste contreys. c 1400 Brut ccxxviii. 301 In þe same ȝere, aboute þe Sowth⁓cuntreys and also in þe west cuntres, þere fell so much reyne..þat [etc.]. c 1470 Henry Wallace iv. 171 Our wast contre thar statute is so strang, Into the north my purposs is to gang. 1473 J. Warkworth Chron. (Camden) 10 The Erle of Warwyke londede in the west countre. 1534 Cromwell in Merriman Life & Lett. (1902) I. 395 Ye do deteyne..certeyne londes in the weste cuntrey contrary to all right. 1570–6 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1596) 474 At Dartmouth in the West countrie. 1639 G. Plattes Discov. Subterr. Treas. xi. 51 Every one may see in the west Country, where such a multitude of Firre trees doe lie covered so deepe in the earth, that [etc.]. 1827 Scott Let. in Lockhart (1837) I. v. 136, I had very little acquaintance..with the gentry of the west country. 1845 Carlyle Cromwell xliii. I. 359 The Whiggamore Raid, all the force of the West Country, 6,000 strong, is already there. 1906 J. E. Vincent Highways Berks. ix. 241 It is a little strained, perhaps, to include Berkshire in the West country. |
b. attrib. (Frequently hyphened.)
| a 1653 Binning Usef. Case Consc. (1693) 40 They think these Malignants better than the West-Countrey forces. 1678 T. Jordan Tri. Lond. 14 Zome honest plain West-Country-mon. 1690 Lond. Gaz. No. 2579/2 Edinburgh... Several Thousands of the West-Country Men have offered to Serve Their Majesties against the Highlanders. 1720 Ibid. No. 5895/4 Speaks in a broad West-Country Dialect. 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 435 Sheep..of the Devonshire, or west-country breed. 1820 Scott Monast. Introd. Ep., A west-country whig frae Kilmarnock. 1865 Kingsley Herew. v, Why should he know our West country ways? 1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 586 One branch of her family, living in a west-country town. |
| fig. 1853 W. D. Cooper Sussex Gloss. (ed. 2) 85 West-country Parson, the Hake; so called from the black streak on the back, and from its abundance along the West Coast. |