upcountry

English

Etymology

Possibly a Calque of French Pays d’en Haut a designation from 1610 referring to the area of New France west of Montreal. By surface analysis, up +‎ country.

Adjective

upcountry (not comparable)

1. Living or situated remote from the seacoast

   an upcountry residence

   • 2010 Fall, George R. Lamplugh, “James Gunn”, in Georgia Historical Quarterly, volume 94, number 3, pages 313–341:

     The fourth company involved in the purchase, the Upper Mississippi Company (formed by Thomas Scott after he had withdrawn the bid of the Virginia Yazoo Company), apparently restricted its largess to a few upcountry Georgians.

Related terms

• inland

Noun

upcountry (uncountable)

1. The interior of the country.
   • 2010 Fall, George R. Lamplugh, “James Gunn”, in Georgia Historical Quarterly, volume 94, number 3, pages 313–341:

     To further this end, the speculators also distributed subshares to other prominent Georgians, particularly those whose actions might carry weight in the upcountry.

2. The part of the country that is at high elevation.
   • 2006, Matt Wray, Not Quite White, page 153:

     Within the focus on the colonial South, there are works that detail regional differences in social organization between the backcountry (frontier), upcountry (Appalachia, Piedmont), and lowcountry (plantation).

Adverb

upcountry (not comparable)

1. Towards the interior of the country and away from the seacoast.
   • 2010 Oct, Tim Butcher, “Our Man in Liberia”, in History Today, volume 60, number 10, pages 10–17:

     According to Dr Christy in 1931, the authorities in Monrovia had deliberately banned all freelance travel upcountry by outsiders, …