England

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English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle English Engelond, from Old English Engla land (literally “land of the Angles”), from genitive of Engle (“the Angles”) + land (“land”).

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈɪŋɡlənd/, (non-standard) /ˈɪŋɡələnd/
  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈɪŋɡlənd/, (also) /ˈɪŋlənd/
  • Audio (UK):(file)
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Hyphenation: Eng‧land

Proper noun

England (usually uncountable, plural Englands)

  2. The kingdom established in southeast Britain by Aethelstan of Wessex in 927 and its various successor states, now the largest and most populous of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom; (by extension, sometimes proscribed) the area of this kingdom generally, south of Scotland and east of Wales, including (historical) this area of Celtic and Roman Britain or the post-Roman kingdoms of the Angles and other Germans taken collectively.
    • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
      Gaunt ...This royall throne of Kings, this sceptred Ile,
      This earth of maiesty, this seate of Mars,
      This other Eden, demy Paradice,
      This fortresse built by Nature for her selfe,
      Against infection and the hand of warre,
      This happy breede of men, this little world,
      This precious stone set in the siluer sea,
      Which serues it in the office of a wall,
      Or as moate defensiue to a house,
      Against the enuie of lesse happier lands.
      This blessed plot, this earth, this realme, this England...
      Is now leasde out...
      That England that was wont to conquer others,
      Hath made a shamefull conquest
      of it selfe...
    • 1804, William Blake, Milton, Vol. I, Preface:
      And did those feet in ancient time
      Walk upon England’s mountains green?
      And was the holy Lamb of God
      On England’s pleasant pastures seen?...
      I will not cease from Mental Fight,
      Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand,
      Till we have built Jerusalem
      In England’s green & pleasant Land.
    • 1864, Amédée Baillot translating Victor Hugo as William Shakespeare, Ch. 6:
      What is England? She is Elizabeth... To live alone, to go alone, to reign alone, to be alone,—such is Elizabeth, such is England...
      England has two books: one which she has made, the other which has made her,—Shakespeare and the Bible. These two books do not agree together... Shakespeare thinks, Shakespeare dreams, Shakespeare doubts... Moreover, Shakespeare invents.
    • 1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. I:
      England is not the jewelled isle of Shakespeare's much-quoted passage, nor is it the inferno depicted by Dr Goebbels. More than either it resembles a family, a rather stuffy Victorian family, with not many black sheep but with all its cupboards bursting with skeletons. It has rich relations who have to be kow-towed to and poor relations who are horribly sat upon, and there is a deep conspiracy of silence about the source of the family income.
    • 1983, William S. Burroughs, The Place of Dead Roads, pg. 203:
      England is like some stricken beast too stupid to know it is dead. Ingloriously foundering in its own waste products, the backlash and bad karma of empire.
    • 2012, Maureen Johnson, The Madness Underneath:
      "This is England," he explained. "Tell someone it's a procedure, and they'll believe you. The pointless procedure is one of our great natural resources."
    • 2013 March 25, David Sedaris, "Long Way Home" in The New Yorker:
      Had they responded this way in France or America, this wouldn't have surprised me, but wasn't everyone in England supposed to be a detective? Wasn't every crime, no matter how complex, solved in a timely fashion by either a professional or a hobbyist? That's the impression you get from British books and TV shows.
    Just close your eyes and think of England.
  3. (chiefly law, historical or obsolete) Synonym of England and Wales.
  5. (proscribed, sometimes offensive) Synonym of United Kingdom.
  6. A habitational surname from Old English.
  7. (US) A city in Lonoke County, Arkansas, United States.

Usage notes

As England has always constituted the most populous and important of the kingdoms comprising the United Kingdom, it has historically been used metonymously for the UK as a whole in English and (in translation) other languages as well. This usage is now considered uninformed or insulting, particularly to subjects of the other parts of the UK. The 1746 Wales & Berwick Act formalized the previous informal understanding that laws referencing the Kingdom of England alone also applied to the Principality of Wales; this continued to be the case until the 1967 Welsh Language Act required that any similarly general laws afterwards must specify England and Wales separately.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Anagrams

Danish

Danish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia da

Proper noun

England

  1. England
  2. (informal, somewhat dated) Great Britain (an island in Western Europe)
  3. (informal, somewhat dated) United Kingdom (a country in Western Europe)

German

German Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia de

Pronunciation

Proper noun

England n (proper noun, genitive Englands or (optionally with an article) England)

  1. England (a constituent country of the United Kingdom)
  2. (somewhat informal) Great Britain (an island in Western Europe)
  3. (somewhat informal) United Kingdom (a country in Western Europe)
  4. (informal, proscribed) the British Isles (an archipelago in Western Europe, including Ireland)

Usage notes

  • In formal usage, England referring to Great Britain or the United Kingdom is now very rare.
  • In common speech, England continues to be the most common word for the two respective entities as a whole. It is, however, now uncommon to use England when referring specifically to a place or incident in Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland. In such a case, the respective word would normally be used (Schottland, Wales, Nordirland).
  • The usage including the Republic of Ireland, which is sometimes heard, is conspicuously nonstandard.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Further reading

  • “England” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Icelandic

Icelandic Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia is

Etymology

From Old Norse Ęngland.

Pronunciation

Proper noun

England n

  1. England

Declension

    Declension of England
n-s singular
indefinite
nominative England
accusative England
dative Englandi
genitive Englands

Derived terms

Luxembourgish

Luxembourgish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia lb

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈæŋˌlant/, [ˈæŋˌlɑnt]

Proper noun

England n

  1. England

Norwegian Bokmål

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Proper noun

England

  1. England
  2. (informal, dated) Great Britain (an island in Western Europe)
  3. (informal, dated) United Kingdom (a country in Western Europe)

Norwegian Nynorsk

Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nn

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɛŋlɑn/, /ˈɛŋlɑnd/

Proper noun

England

  1. England

Swedish

Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia sv

Pronunciation

Proper noun

England n (genitive Englands)

  1. England
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