countryside

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Proto-Indo-European *-teros Proto-Italic *-teros Proto-Italic *komterosder. Proto-Italic *komterād Latin contrā Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos Proto-Italic *-ātos Latin -ātus Latin -āta Vulgar Latin *(terra) contrāta Old French contreebor. Middle English contre English country Proto-Indo-European *seh₁-der. Proto-Germanic *sīdaz Proto-Germanic *sīdǭ Old English sīde Middle English side English side English -side English countryside From country + -side.

1. An area located outside of towns and cities; an area that is not urban or suburban; a rural area.

   “From November 28 to December 8, 1958, the CCP Central Committee held its sixth plenum in Wuhan, Hopei^([sic – meaning Hupei]), and at the end of the session it issued a revealing resolution that declared there had been some misconception about the system and that party committees throughout the countryside should make full use of the five months from December 1958 to April 1959 to tidy up the communes.”

   “When rewilding plans were first revealed, critics of Scotland’s concentrated land ownership – half of the Scottish countryside is owned by around 450 people – expressed fears that Glenfeshie might become a reservation for the rich, but these have been partially allayed by letting ordinary hikers walk across the glens for free.”

2. Such part of a larger area.

   “We live in the Swedish countryside.”

3. A rural landscape.