A 'country mile' is a term used casually in some areas of the English-speaking world to refer to a very great distance, but what's the origin of the term? Obviously 'mile' refers to what could be seen (from a human perspective) as a long distance, but why does the adjective 'country' combine to make it mean a very great distance?
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2Perhaps a "Country mile" is longer than a mile in a town because country folk in rural areas became stronger walkers, used to travelling greater distances at greater speeds. Therefore a countryman's estimate of what was a mile would be longer than a town dweller's ...?– ronCommented Jun 4, 2013 at 18:05
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12 Answers
There are two possibilities: either the difficulty of terrain makes a country mile harder to travel; or before standardisation, miles were further.
An example of the first from Frederick de Kruger's 1829 The Villager's Tale
The travelling stage had set me down
Within a mile of yon church-town;
'T was long indeed, a country mile.
But well I knew each field or style;
An example of the second comes from The Treasury of Knowledge and Library of Reference in 1850:
Robin Hood shot a full mile; and, according to his bard, a north-country mile was equal to two statute ones.
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The first suggestion doesn't support the meaning that a country mile is a long distance, but rather that it is a difficult journey. In fact, if comparing by relative difficulty, a country mile would be shorter than a standard mile.– KylosCommented Jun 30, 2015 at 14:31
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@Kylos - I thought I had said that with "the difficulty of terrain makes a country mile harder to travel"– HenryCommented Jun 30, 2015 at 17:10
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Yes. However, difficulty of terrain does not equate to a longer distance, and 'country mile' means 'long distance' not 'difficult journey'. Your answer associates a long distance with a difficult trip.– KylosCommented Jun 30, 2015 at 18:11
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3I don't have any evidence for this, but based on usage (and growing up in the country), I would expect the real origin is that in the country, the scale of distances between locations causes people to regularly overestimate the distance ("a mile down the road" might actually be 5 miles), while someone living in a city, familiar with locations distributed at city-scale, might regularly overestimate distances ("1 mile away" might actually be a half mile).– KylosCommented Jun 30, 2015 at 18:12
A country mile is perhaps a far longer arbitrary distance than a proper mile for the considerably longer distances between homes and other settlements in the country than in less rural areas.
This is an interesting question. I don't have a citation for you, but I have always understood this to refer to the fact that going a mile cross country is much more arduous than the same distance over a paved road, with many more twists and turns, not to mention thickets, streams and what have you.
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Then what about an "ocean mile" or a "desert mile"? They both have different difficulties. So would a desert mile be harder or easier than a country mile? I grew up in the country and I remember walking miles in flat grasslands without any more difficulty than paved streets. :-)– cbmeeksCommented Jun 1, 2018 at 13:51
A country mile is an exaggerated distance. Mile is from the Latin for 1,000 paces [mille passuum] and has become standardized in English as 1,760 yards. The term "country mile" may be by analogy to a nautical mile (one minute of a great circle of the earth; fixed at 6,080 feet), an Irish mile (2,240 yards), a Scottish mile (various, including 1,976 yards), or it may be because the winding character of many country roads requires a long distance (in excess of a mile) to be traversed in order to travel between two places which, in a straight line, are a mile apart.
In the country the land is clear and you can see further. Thus, city folk can only see so far before the view is blocked. In the country this is not an issue. There is no set distance for a country mile as the distance the eye can see is variable with the surrondings. In general the eye can see further in the country hence the country mile being considered a great distance.
It refers to the fact that due to the winding manner of the country roads, even though it may be a mile as the crow flies, it may take multiple miles to arrive by road.
Things are farther apart in the country. So, if you asked me where the gas station was. I might say, "Oh, it's right down the street". Right down the street to me, might mean 10 miles away. 10 miles in the city means a completely different part of town. 10 miles in the country, is right down the street. Right down the street is a country mile.
I have nothing but anecdotal evidence, having walked "a country mile." There are no mountains in the distance, just flat lands. The distance seems to go on for quite some time. It is an exaggeration of terms.
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Not all countryside is flat. Not all cities have mountains in the distance. Commented Jan 10, 2019 at 18:25
When I hear this phrase I am always reminded of when we would play games as kids and something slightly out of the rules would occur. It was a favourite gag for the offender to grin and declare "country rules", before continuing as if nothing had happened. For this reason I have always associated "country" with "approximated and generous". Completely anecdotal and a bit of a tangent as information, but it as a country dweller the first phrase has always informed my use of "a country mile".
I believe it comes from townsfolk overstating distances in the city (saying something is a mile away, when it is in fact closer).
Then, when in the country a mile is used to represent its actual length, and this feels like a great distance compared to what is normally referred to as a mile by townsfolk.
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1Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please edit to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.– Community BotCommented Dec 21, 2023 at 13:57
It was penned by the map maker Henry joist in1651. He set out the county of Essex. He calibrated his equipment incorrectly, as a result his mile was a mile and a half. The term for a distance longer than anticipated was originally an Essex mile, later changed to country mile.
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1I don't buy this at all. Many references to this Henry Joist quote the same page from the Essex Herald. But that's a "spoof" online newspaper (apparently now incorporating The Landfill Tawny Echo). Commented Jun 3, 2013 at 20:24
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Well I just heard it on the bbc, that's a good enough reference for me.– StueyCommented Jun 3, 2013 at 20:42
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2@ Stuey: Perhaps it was a tongue-in-cheek BBC piece. Follow those links and I'm sure you'll agree it's just so much tosh. Commented Jun 3, 2013 at 20:47
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@FumbleFingers - I assume you've seen youtube.com/watch?v=27ugSKW4-QQ and that was panorama.– Chris HCommented Oct 9, 2013 at 8:47
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@Chris: I'm not quite old enough to have seen it when it was originally broadcast in 1957. So I've seen it, but only in contexts where it's obviously an April Fool. Mind you, there's a village called Colgate a few miles from where I live. About once a decade on April 1st some new hack working for a local newspaper thinks of running a story about the toothpaste reserves being exhausted, and the mine being closed. I never believe them though - I reckon there's enough there to last us for centuries if we're careful. Commented Oct 9, 2013 at 13:54
A country mile is a mile but travelling a mile in the country is more of a challenge than a mile in a town because of the terrain.
