Countrymen
nounPeople from one's own nation, considered as a group; fellow citizens.
How to spell countrymen
10 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce countrymen
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does countrymen mean?
- nounPeople from one's own nation, considered as a group; fellow citizens.
Countrymen in a sentence
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The speech urged his fellow countrymen to vote in the coming election.
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The soldiers fought to protect their countrymen back home.
Where does countrymen come from?
Language of origin: French
This word is a compound of 'country' and 'man'. 'Country' came into English in the 1200s from Old French 'cuntree', which traced back to the Latin phrase 'terra contrata', literally 'land lying opposite' or 'land spread out before one', from 'contra' meaning 'against' or 'facing'. The notion was of the landscape that opens up before a viewer, and over time it narrowed to mean a nation or homeland. 'Man' is a native Germanic word from Old English 'mann', originally meaning simply a person or human being. Joined together, 'countryman' came to mean a fellow inhabitant of one's nation, and its plural keeps the irregular Old English vowel shift seen in 'man' to 'men', which is the small detail spellers must remember: it ends in -men, not -mans.
How the word is built
- country (the land of one's birth or residence)
- -men (irregular plural of 'man')
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