noun
- one’s native country.
- the land of one’s ancestors.
noun
- a person’s native country
- the country of a person’s ancestors
1620s, from father (n.) + land (n.). In modern use often a loan-translation of German Vaterland, itself a loan-translation of Latin patria (terra), literally “father’s land.” Late Old English/Middle English fæderland (c.1100) meant “parental land, inheritance.”