1. Roman law. The fatherland; a person’s home area.
2. Hist. The country or the area within it, such as a county or neighborhood.
3. Hist. A jury, as when a defendant “puts himself upon the country” (ponit se super patriam). See CONCLUSION TO THE COUNTRY ; GOING TO THE COUNTRY; PAYS.
“Though our Latin uses patria, our French uses pays, which descends from Latin pagus. The ‘country’ of this formula is not our father-land but ‘the country-side.’ ” 2 Frederick Pollock & Frederic W. Maitland, The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I 624 n.1 (2d ed. 1899).
