land
pronunciation
How to pronounce land in British English:
UK [lænd]
How to pronounce land in American English:
US [lænd]
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- Noun:
- the land on which real estate is located
- material in the top layer of the surface of the earth in which plants can grow (especially with reference to its quality or use)
- the solid part of the earth's surface
- territory over which rule or control is exercised
- the territory occupied by a nation
- a domain in which something is dominant
- extensive landed property (especially in the country) retained by the owner for his own use
- the people who live in a nation or country
- a politically organized body of people under a single government
- working the land as an occupation or way of life
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- Verb:
- reach or come to rest
- cause to come to the ground
- bring into a different state
- bring ashore
- deliver (a blow)
- arrive on shore
- shoot at and force to come down
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- Adjective:
- relating to or characteristic of or occurring on land
- operating or living or growing on land
Word Origin
- land
- land: [OE] Land goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *landam. This seems originally to have meant ‘particular (enclosed) area’ (ancestor of the modern sense ‘nation’), but in due course it branched out to ‘solid surface of the earth in general’. The term is now common to all the Germanic languages, and it has distant relatives in Welsh llan ‘enclosure, church’ and Breton lann ‘heath’ (source of French lande ‘heath, moor’, from which English gets lawn).=> lawn
- land (n.)
- Old English land, lond, "ground, soil," also "definite portion of the earth's surface, home region of a person or a people, territory marked by political boundaries," from Proto-Germanic *landom (cognates: Old Norse, Old Frisian Dutch, Gothic land, German Land), from PIE *lendh- "land, heath" (cognates: Old Irish land, Middle Welsh llan "an open space," Welsh llan "enclosure, church," Breton lann "heath," source of French lande; Old Church Slavonic ledina "waste land, heath," Czech lada "fallow land"). Etymological evidence and Gothic use indicates the original sense was "a definite portion of the earth's surface owned by an individual or home of a nation." Meaning early extended to "solid surface of the earth," which had been the sense of the root of Modern English earth. Original sense of land in English is now mostly found under country. To take the lay of the land is a nautical expression. In the American English exclamation land's sakes (1846) land is a euphemism for Lord.
- land (v.1)
- "to bring to land," early 13c., from land (n.). Originally of ships; of fish, in the angling sense, from 1610s; hence figurative sense of "to obtain" (a job, etc.), first recorded 1854. Of aircraft, attested from 1916. Related: Landed; landing.
- land (v.2)
- "to make contact, to hit home" (of a blow, etc.), by 1881, perhaps altered from lend in a playful sense, or else an extension of land (v.1).
Example
- 1. But new forests take up a lot of land .
- 2. Perhaps only sons may inherit land .
- 3. Most local government revenue comes from land sales .
- 4. Getting permission to land can be another hassle altogether .
- 5. If needed , rescuers will land to render the aid .