Province
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Literature in the 16th century was still the province of a happy few. Important books include Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais and Heptameron by the Queen of Navarre." |
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A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman provincia, which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term province has since been adopted by many countries. In some countries with no actual provinces, "the provinces" is a metaphorical term meaning "outside the capital city".
While some provinces were produced artificially by colonial powers, others were formed around local groups with their own ethnic identities. Many have their own powers independent of central or federal authority, especially in Canada and Pakistan. In other countries, like China or France, provinces are the creation of central government, with very little autonomy.
Etymology
The English word province is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French Template:Lang, which itself comes from the Latin word Template:Lang, which referred to the sphere of authority of a magistrate, in particular, to a foreign territory.
A popular etymology is from Latin Template:Lang ("on behalf of") and Template:Lang ("to triumph" or "to take control of"). Thus a "province" would be a territory or function that a Roman magistrate held control of on behalf of his government. In fact, the word province is an ancient term from public law, which means: "office belonging to a magistrate". This agrees with the Latin term's earlier usage as a generic term for a jurisdiction under Roman law.
See also
