province

name

1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: Inherited from Middle English provynce, from Anglo-Norman province, Old French province, from Latin prōvincia, seemingly corresponding to prō- (“forward”) + vinciō (“to bind, bind about, fetter, tie, fasten, surround, encircle”). Displaced Old English boldġetæl.

1. A region of the earth or of a continent; a district or country.

   “[…] we should find, as we do find, some groups of beings greatly, and some only slightly modified,—[…]—in the different great geographical provinces of the world.”

2. An administrative subdivision of certain countries, including Canada and China.

   “Chowta-Zhin, who is ſaid to be a man of buſineſs and preciſion, and cautious of advancing facts, at the requeſt of Earl Macartney, delivered to him a ſtatement taken from one of the public officers in the capitol, of the inhabitants of the fifteen ancient provinces of China, or China proper, within the great wall ; according to which the number of inhabitants, taken by a regular enumeration, amounts to 333,000,000!”

   “The telegraph administration refuses to transmit messages either to or from the Provinces of Hu-Peh, Hu-Nan, Kiang-Si, Sze-Chuan, Kwei-Chow, and Yu-Nan^([sic – meaning Yun-Nan]).”

3. An area outside Italy which is administered by a Roman governor or prefect.

   “He reminded his audience of events in 88BC, when the same Mithridates invaded the Roman province of Asia, on the western coast of Turkey.”

4. An area under the jurisdiction of an archbishop, typically comprising a number of adjacent dioceses.

   “In 1309, neither the Archbishop of Canterbury nor his suffragans would attend in Parliament while the Archbishop of York had the cross borne erect before him in the province of Canterbury.”

5. An area under the jurisdiction of a provincial within a monastic order.
6. The parts of a country outside its national capital.

   “To-day the first part of the new Indian Constitution comes into force with the granting of a large measure of autonomy to the provinces.”

   “"What are the Russian provinces?" he said. "Dirt, ruins, poverty, drunkenness. That is what we need to be working on, rather than expanding our prison to include Georgia, Ukraine, the Baltic states, and Belarus. That is the kind of Russian nationalist that I am…. There is no sense in using force to hold people that don’t want to be with you."”

7. A major region defined by common geologic attributes and history.
8. An area of activity, responsibility or knowledge; the proper concern of a particular person or concept.

   “Some few hands are reserved called ship-keepers, whose province it is to work the vessel while the boats are pursuing the whale.”

   “More than half a million women are now employed on the railways of the Soviet Union, and some of them perform such duties as those of engine drivers and stationmasters, formerly considered the sole province of men.”