province

Etymology

From Middle English provynce, from Anglo-Norman province, Middle French province, from Latin prōvincia (“territory brought under Roman domination; official duty, office, charge, province”), from Proto-Indo-European *prōw- (“right judge, master”). Cognate with Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌿𐌾𐌰 (frauja, “lord, master”), Old English frēa (“ruler, lord, king, master”). Replaced Old English boldġetæl. See also frow.

noun

1. A region of the earth or of a continent; a district or country.
2. An administrative subdivision of certain countries, including Canada and China.
   Chowta-Zhin, who is ſaid to be a man of buſineſs and preciſion, and cautious of advancing facts, at the requeſt of Earl Macartney, delivered to him a ſtatement taken from one of the public officers in the capitol, of the inhabitants of the fifteen ancient provinces of China, or China proper, within the great wall ; according to which the number of inhabitants, taken by a regular enumeration, amounts to 333,000,000! October 20, 1798 [1797], “CALCULATIONS OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE GLOBE.”, in The Rural Magazine, volume I, number 36, Newark, →OCLC, page 2, column 1
   The telegraph administration refuses to transmit messages either to or from the Provinces of Hu-Peh, Hu-Nan, Kiang-Si, Sze-Chuan, Kwei-Chow, and Yu-Nan. October 16, 1911 [October 15, 1911], “CENSOR STOPS REVOLT NEWS.; Troops Moving South, but Number Concealed -- Train Service Reduced.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-08-12, page 6
   After the Hsuchow-Pengpu Battle,* with the exception of the battles fought on Tengpu Island and Kinmen Island,** Government troops put up no determined fight, and, as a result, province after province on the mainland fell into Communist hands. 1957, Chung-cheng (Kai-shek) Chiang, “China's Struggle Against Communism: Gains and Losses”, in Soviet Russia in China: A Summing-up at Seventy, New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 236
   All of Fort McMurray, with the exception of Parson’s Creek, was under a mandatory evacuation order on Tuesday, said Robin Smith, press secretary for the regional municipality of Wood Buffalo in the Canadian province [of Alberta]. 4 May 2016, The Guardian
3. (Roman history) An area outside Italy which is administered by a Roman governor.
   He reminded his audience of events in 88BC, when the same Mithridates invaded the Roman province of Asia, on the western coast of Turkey. 28 November 2008, Mark Brown, The Guardian
4. (Christianity) An area under the jurisdiction of an archbishop, typically comprising a number of adjacent dioceses.
   In 1309, neither the Archbishop of Canterbury nor his suffragans would attend in Parliament while the Archbishop of York had the cross borne erect before him in the province of Canterbury. 1838, The Churchman, page 44
5. (Roman Catholicism) An area under the jurisdiction of a provincial within a monastic order.
6. (in the plural, chiefly with definite article) The parts of a country outside its capital city.
   To-day the first part of the new Indian Constitution comes into force with the granting of a large measure of autonomy to the provinces. 1 April 1937, The Guardian
   "What are the Russian provinces?" he said. "Dirt, ruins, poverty, drunkenness. That is what we need to be working on, rather than expanding our prison to include Georgia, Ukraine, the Baltic states, and Belarus. That is the kind of Russian nationalist that I am…. There is no sense in using force to hold people that don’t want to be with you." 7 February 2023, Yauhen Lehalau, “'I Couldn't Just Stand By': Russian Fighters Explain Why They Took Up Arms Against The Kremlin”, in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
7. An area of activity, responsibility or knowledge; the proper concern of a particular person or concept.
   More than half a million women are now employed on the railways of the Soviet Union, and some of them perform such duties as those of engine drivers and stationmasters, formerly considered the sole province of men. 1941 February, “Notes and News: Women on Soviet Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 82
   Just as money is the province of the economy and truth the province of science and scholarship, so love is the province of the family (Niklas Luhmann). 1984, Dorothee Sölle, The Strength of the Weak: Toward a Christian Feminist Identity, page 37