English
hinterland
Hinterland comes from German Hinterland ‘areas surrounding and serving an economic centre’.
- Germanc. 1650–presentHinterland‘areas surrounding and serving an economic centre’
- Englishearliest quotation 1961hinterland
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Germanc. 1650–presentHinterland‘areas surrounding and serving an economic centre’
- Englishearliest quotation 1961hinterland
Earliest quotation: 1961, New traffic flows in South Wales: “In West Wales it has never been possible until…”
A compound of hinter ‘behind’ + Land ‘land’
Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm ‘beside, near, by, with’
Proto-Indo-European *ḱem-tér- ‘down, back, along, over, through’
Proto-Germanic *hinder ‘behind, beyond’
Old High German hintar ‘behind’
Middle High German hinder
German hinter ‘behind’
Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- ‘land, heath’
Proto-Germanic *landą ‘land, area of ground’
Proto-West Germanic *land ‘land, area of ground’
Old High German lant ‘land’
Middle High German lant ‘land’
German Land ‘land’
first attested First used in English in 1888 by George Chisholm in his work Handbook of Commercial Geography originally as hinderland, but the current spelling (following German) became more popular (as stated in the etymology)
The story
First used in English in 1888 by George Chisholm in his work Handbook of Commercial Geography originally as hinderland, but the current spelling (following German) became more popular. The term is characteristic of a thalassocratic analysis of space (from the point of view of a nation with maritime supremacy, such as 19th-century Britain).
Every English word from German Hinterland
Today it means
noun The land immediately next to, and inland from, a coast.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / German Hinterland / hinterland