the.com/county
A medieval count's turf that somehow outlived the count and his entire job description.
means An administrative region within a country or state, used as a unit of local government and geography.
from From Old French 'conté,' the domain or jurisdiction of a 'conte' (a count), which traces back to Latin 'comes' — literally 'companion,' originally a companion of the emperor or a member of his retinue. The land a count governed took his title, and when English borrowed the word it kept the territory even as the noble role faded; tellingly, England never really had 'counts' (it had earls) but adopted 'county' for the shires all the same.
- Etymology
- Named for counts who once ruled the land
- Louisiana exception
- Calls them parishes, a churchy holdover from France
- Texas count
- 254 counties, more than any other state
- Alaska oddity
- Has zero counties, uses boroughs instead
- Smallest US
- Kalawao, Hawaii, a former leprosy colony