country peoplen.

?1556 N. Smyth tr. Herodian Hist. viii. f. lxxxix The assembly of Countrey people [L. confluentibus..ex agris], who hauynge forsaken theyr owne small Droupes [sic], and Vylages, dyd truste them selues, vnto the greatenes of this Cytye.

1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry i. f. 6^v Countrey people were alwayes preferred before the people of the Citie.

1649 W. Blith Eng. Improver ii. 11 Labouring Country people brew their owne beare.

1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding i. iv. 32 Talk but with Country-people.

1722 R. Wodrow Hist. Sufferings Church of Scotl. II. 384 (Jam.) How little justice..poor simple country people..had to look for.

1770 Monthly Rev. Jan. 80 Great calamaties..have befallen (not a parcel of poor, simple country people, harmlessly met together to see a penny shew, but) congregations assembled in Churches.

1847 R. W. Emerson Goethe in Wks. (1906) I. 384 Practising on the prejudices and facility of country-people.

1882 Cent. Mag. Jan. 367/1 He began to believe that he was going to have what the country people call a fit of sickness.

1928 Amer. Mercury Oct. 210/2 In the main square of the village stood the horse-racks to which the country people hitched their teams while they did their shopping.

1976 National Observer (U.S.) 5 June 20/5 These country people have rough but honest faces.

2009 J. Struthers Red Sky at Night 235 There is an old gardening tradition, still practised by some country people, which is known as gardening by the moon.

1569 W. Samuel Abridgem. Olde Test. Pref. sig. A.iv All scriptures of God are good for the man of God.., that he may be parfet (which God send my cuntrie poeple once to be).

1613 Marriage Fredericke & Lady Elizabeth sig. B^v All these aforesaid pastimes were most nobly performed.., to the great content as well of forraigne nations as of our owne country people.

1633 T. Stafford Pacata Hibernia i. xiv. 91 His Countrey people vsed loud & rude dehortations to keepe him from Church.

1707 H. Sloane Voy. Jamaica I. Introd. p. xlviii When they die.., their Country people make great lamentations, mournings, and howlings about them expiring.

1794 E. Gunning Packet III. 193 Ordered to turn them against his own country people.

1840 Missionary Reg. Jan. 51/2 The duty of a Helper is..; to inform the Missionary if any one is taken ill; and to visit their country people, and invite them to come to church.

1929 E. A. Powell Last Home of Myst. xiv. 313 I sometimes wonder why my country-people are so eager to pay exorbitant prices for damp rooms,..when they could be so much more comfortable at home.

2007 Europe-Asia Stud. 59 13 A Chinese businessman and a group of his country people were the only ones who could avert the total collapse of the local economy.