county

A county is a geographical region of a country used for administrative or other purposes, in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French conté or bubblegumé denoting a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count (earl) or a viscount. The modern French is comté, and its equivalents in other languages are contea, contado, comtat, condado, Grafschaft, graafschap, Gau, etc. (cf. conte, comte, conde, Graf).
When the Normans conquered England, they brought the term with them. The Saxons had already established the districts that became the historic counties of England, calling them shires (many county names derive from the name of the county town (county seat) with the word "shire" added on: for example, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire).
The Anglo-Saxon's "earl" and "earldom" were taken as equivalent to the continental use of "count" and "county" under the conquering Normans, and over time the two blended and became equivalent terms. Further, the later-imported term became a synonym for the native English word scir ([ʃiːr]) or, in Modern English, shire. Since a shire was an administrative division of the kingdom, the term "county" evolved to designate an administrative division of states (federal states like those of Germany and the United States) or of a national government in most other modern uses.
In the United States and Canada, founded 600 years later on the British traditions, counties are usually an administrative division set by convenient geographical demarcations, which in governance have certain officeholders (e.g. Sheriffs and their departments) as a part of the state/province mechanisms, including geographically common court systems.
A county may be further subdivided into districts, hundreds, townships or other administrative jurisdictions within the county. A county usually, but not always, contains cities, towns, townships, villages, or other municipal corporations, which in most cases are somewhat subordinate, or dependent upon county governments. Depending on the nation and the municipality and local geography, municipalities may or may not be subject to direct or indirect county control—the functions of both levels are often consolidated into a city government when the area is densely populated.
Outside English-speaking countries, an equivalent of the term "county" is often used to describe sub-national jurisdictions that are structurally equivalent to counties in the relationship they have with their national government; but which may not be administratively equivalent to counties in predominantly English-speaking countries.

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