England

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɪŋɡlənd/, (non-standard) /ˈɪŋɡələnd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɪŋɡlənd/, (also) /ˈɪŋlənd/

• Audio (UK)

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• Audio (US)

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• Hyphenation: Eng‧land

England (usually uncountable, plural Englands)

1. 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, Victor Hugo, chapter 6, in Amédée Baillot, transl., William Shakespeare:

     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, page 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.

2. (chiefly law, historical or obsolete) Synonym of England and Wales.
3. (proscribed, sometimes offensive) Synonym of United Kingdom.
4. A habitational surname from Old English.
5. (US) A city in Lonoke County, Arkansas, United States.

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.

• See Thesaurus:England

• England, Arkansas on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• England (surname) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• endlang

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

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)

From Old English Engaland.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛŋlant/

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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)

• 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.

• Engelland (archaic)
• (Great Britain): Großbritannien, GB
• (United Kingdom): Vereinigtes Königreich, VK

• Engländer
• engländisch
• Altengland
• Mittelengland
• Neuengland
• Nordengland
• Ostengland
• Südengland

• Angelland
• englisch
  • Englisch

• “England” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

From Old Norse Ęngland.

• IPA^(key): /ˈeiŋ.lant/

England n

1. England

• Englendingur
• enskur
• Nýja-England

• IPA^(key): /ˈæŋˌlant/, [ˈæŋˌlɑnt]

England n

1. England

England

1. Alternative form of Engelond
   • 1454, Roger Leigh, Clarenceux King of Arms, Confirmation of Arms to John Aleyn of Buckinghamshire :[enm 1]

     Which armes I the seid Clarensewe King of Armes conferme unto the seid John and w^tnesse here that nos ꝑsone w^tin the Raume of England ought for to bere hem but the seid John and the heirs of his body lawfully begaten. In w^tnesse wherof to thise ꝉres I have sette my seall of armes and my signe manuell.

England

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

• engelsk
• engelskmann
• englender

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛŋlɑn/, /ˈɛŋlɑnd/

England

1. England

• engelsk
• engelskmann

England n

1. England
   • " var sanctus thomas först konungx cancAläre j englande"

     Konung Alexander. Utg. af G.E. Klemming. 1862.

• Swedish: England

• “kanceläre” in Old Swedish Dictionary

From Old Swedish England, Engeland, Engelandh.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛŋland/

• audio

  (file)

England n (genitive Englands)

1. England