2007-09-22 12:43:51 · 5 answers · asked by bmyconsprcys 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
eek's got the right idea. The better question would be --who put the U in it? The word goes back to Latin "(terra) contrata". But on its way through Old French into Middle English that vowel ended up spelled various ways (such as cuntre(e), countree).
Check the word histories at the end of the different dictionary entries for this word on this page:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/country
Very likely these variations simply represent the different ways it was pronounced in different periods and/or different dialects. And it looks like the dialect that "won out" in the 'standard' pronunciation in Modern English, was NOT the same one that which won in establishes the standard SPELLING. (This has happened with a number of English words --one of those things that can make our spelling tricky.)
Note that there are MANY words that came from Latin through (Old/Norman) French that did something similar -- an "o" in Latin that ended up with various English spellings, with "ou" often winning. You can see several examples just with "cou-" words -- check out the following entries for -- count, council, couple, courage, court, cousin:
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=count
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=council
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=couple
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=court
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=courage
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=cousin
And, of course, other words, e.g., "tour" --
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=tour
2007-09-24 16:23:09 · answer #1 · answered by bruhaha 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Samuel Johnson 1709-1784 codified the spellings in the English language. In his day 'country' was pronounced as it was spelt. A 'country' or county was an area of land run by a count, and later all the counties together became known as the 'country'. A 'count' had to have an O in his name, otherwise he would be something else. Our country, the UK, used to be run by a count without an O, until Gordon Brown took over from him.
2007-09-23 05:15:31 · answer #2 · answered by Retired 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Bet it was the same culprit that put a "u" in court. :)
2007-09-22 20:07:18 · answer #3 · answered by eek 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
are you okay? are you sure?
Um i think the word spell like that
2007-09-22 19:50:52 · answer #4 · answered by ♥♥♥ 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
donuts
2007-09-22 19:50:41 · answer #5 · answered by Rach 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋