| 释义 |
mother country
1. A country in relation to its colonies.
1587Golding De Mornay xxxiii. (1592) 530 After the custome of their Mother country Persia from whence they descend. 1732Berkeley Serm. to S.P.G. Wks. 1871 III. 245 No fashions are so much followed by our Colonies as those of the mother-country. 1861Ld. Brougham Brit. Const. App. i. 405 If Canada were separated from the mother country.
2. One's native country.
So F. terre mère. In Caxton's Eneydos (1490) the words la doulce terre mere of the Fr. original are rendered simply the swete countrey (ed. E.E.T.S. p. 29).
1595Daniel Civ. Wars i. lxxxviii, Thy Mother-countrey, whence thyself didst spring. 1639Massinger Unnat. Combat i. i, To joyne with them to lift a wicked arme against my mother Countrey, this Marsellis. 1723Shaftesbury Charac. III. 143 note, Absolute Power annuls the Publick: And where there is no Publick, or Constitution, there is in reality no Mother-Country or Nation. 1824Lady Granville Lett. 13 Dec., She seems a very charming person..with l'air noble and not a shade of her mother-country. |