county
n.
district, division of land
County
A county is generally a sub-unit of regional self-government within a sovereign jurisdiction. Originally, in continental Europe, a county was the land under the jurisdiction of a
count. Counts are called
earls in post-Celtic
Britain and
Ireland—the term is from
Old Norse jarl and was introduced by the
Vikings—but there is no correlation between counties and
earldoms. Rather, county, from
French comté, was simply used by the
Normans after
1066 to replace the native English term scir —
Modern English shire, as the Anglo-Saxon system of Shires was unique and thus hard for the Norman invaders to comprehend so they resorted to calling them Counties. A shire was an administrative division of an Anglo-Saxon kingdom (
Wessex,
Mercia,
East Anglia, etc.), usually named after its administrative centre: for example,
Gloucester, in
Gloucestershire;
Worcester, in
Worcestershire; etc. or originate from these forms of names (e.g.
Wiltshire derived from 'Wiltonshire' with
Wilton as it's old
county town). Thus, whereas the word comté denoted a sovereign jurisdiction in the original French, the English county denotes a subdivision of a sovereign jurisdiction.
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County
(n.)
An earldom; the domain of a count or earl.
(n.)
A count; an earl or lord.
(n.)
A circuit or particular portion of a state or kingdom, separated from the rest of the territory, for certain purposes in the administration of justice and public affairs; -- called also a shire. See Shire.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), edited by Noah Porter.
About
County
Divisions of land in France formed in the 9th century and in England after the conquest in 1066. The feudal
lord of a county, the English
Count or French Compte, were powerful
nobles who ranked below a
Duke and above
viscounts and
barons . 
County
a parish, or any other equivalent subdivision of a State or Territory of the U.S. USC 1