counterie

English

Noun

counterie (plural counteries)

1. (obsolete, UK dialectal) Alternative spelling of country.
   • 1838, Thomas Eagles, Brendallah, A Poem, Whittaker & Co., section LIX, page 115:

     He's now in that bright blissful counterie

   • 1888, “The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds”, in Henry Halliday Sparling, editor, Irish Minstrelsy: Being a Selection of Irish Songs, Lyrics, and Ballads, Walter Scott, page 381:

     Now, I can say no more ; to the Law-board I must go, / There to take the last farewell of my friends and counterie ;

   • 1932, “Molly of the North Country”, in The Musical Quarterly, volume 18, G. Schirmer, Inc., page 110:

     She's the fairest young maiden that e’er I did see, / She exceeds all the maids in the north counterie.

   • 2011 [1965], Frank Purslow, “Home, Dearest Home”, in Marrow Bones: English Folk Songs From The Hammond And Gardiner Mss., Read Books Limited, page 91:

     You shall dry up your milk as a virgin so free, / And pass for a maid in some strange counterie.