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Comment by Yacoby | Hacker News Reader

Yes. Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom (which is also a country).

It's really a shame how the UK abuses the word country for internal divisions, and the US abuses the word state for the same purpose, so now we have to either accept weirdness or use unwieldy terms like sovereign state.

I know there's good historical reasons, but it muddles language regardless.

How about "top level state." Does make the EU a little weird though.

It’s actually reasonable with the EU too. People keep comparing the US with Denmark, instead of comparing either US/EU or Denmark/Idaho

Denmark is yet another multiple-country sovereign state- Denmark (proper), Greenland, and the Faroe Islands are constituent countries of the Kingdom of Denmark.

That's not such a great example, since Greenland and the Faroe Islands are both of zero significance. (Greenland is significant geographically, but not as a political entity.)

Population of Denmark: 6 million.

Population of Greenland: 0.05 million.

Population of the Faroe Islands: 0.05 million.

FWIW, Germany which is also a federal state, also calls its constituents states. (Just to mention a non-English-speaking example.)

Adjacent Netherlands is also one of the four countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten being the other three).

Germany is a "Bundesstaat" (or "Staat"). The name for its constituents is "Bundesland" (or "Land"). I do not think it is a correct example.

Well, I don't speak German (only recognize a few words), but the meanings of "Land" seem to include both "country" and "state". (As it's part of quite a few country names in German. Including Deutschland itself :) )

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Land#German

“Deutschland” historically meant “the territory where German-speaking people live”, not a country. The name comes from early Middle Ages when the concept of a national country was not established yet. The idea of Deutschland as a country exists only from 19 century.

Well, that's true for most countries. The idea of nation states originated (or at least became popular) in the 19th century. Before that the areas were mostly organized around rulers (like kings).

But it has little to do with the current meaning of the word. I've looked up a few more countries that have the word 'Land' in their name: Weißrussland, England, Estland, Finnland, Griechenland, Russland, etc.

It indeed looks pretty common.

a close neighboring country to the USA is the United Mexican States, Estados Unidos Mexicanos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico

There's no abuse about it. The UK invented the English language, you can't really claim they are using it wrong. Country, state and nation are different things.

"you can't really claim they are using it wrong" lol, watch me.

You can claim all you want, but this is how the terms are used in the real world. In English, real-world use trumps wishful thinking.

The UK certainly did not invent the English language, as it's only been around for a few hundred years as an entity.

Indeed. It was invented by a group of displaced Frenchman in the mid 11th century.

Displaced is a strange term to use for an invading force

Keep in mind that a modern US state is not the same as US state 200 years ago. At this point, the US federal government dictates substantially more of every aspect of a states rule: from education to exports, licensure to healthcare.

The US was an unique attempt at parallel state rule, but consolidation is always inevitable.

However, the legal systems can still be wildly different. The ounce of marijuana that anyone over 21 can buy from a state-licensed shop and possess in Colorado could mean a $2000 fine and up to 6 months in jail in Texas.

frankly given the mass abuse of language over the last 5-10 years this is rhe least of my worries with the english language...

Just 5-10 years? Each generation thinks abuse started with them. But it is turtles all the way down.

Hah, with the recent definition of words changing to fit political discourse we've some straight Orwellian style good think going on recently.

Thanks global media outlets.

That's a bit different from the Simpsons introducing us to the word "couch-potatoe" in the late 90s.

The dichotomy to think about is Unitary states [1] versus Federations [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitary_state

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation

> Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom (which is also a country).

Depending on how you define "country", of course. The definition that makes Scotland "a country" seems mostly historical and peculiarly British. (One would think that also makes Northern Ireland "a country". Is it? Or Cornwall? If not, why not?)

In ordinary day-to-day language, though, "a country" is mostly synonymous with "a sovereign nation", which Scotland isn't. As several comments in this discussion have shown, it seems mostly to be a question of recognition by others, mainly neighbours. Scotland's closest neighbour, the United Kingdom, certainly doesn't seem to recognise it as a sovereign nation. As for international consensus, the closest proxy seems to be membership of the United Nations. Which Scotland has as much as Sealand does. (Perhaps the easiest way to see the conflicting interpretations is that something can't by definition be sovereign if it's part of something else.)

So "Scotland is a country" is true for some values of "country", but not all. (And IMnshO, not the most pertinent ones.)

"How many countries are in this country?" -- Ted Lasso

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