Cantons

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A political subdivision or district within a country, often characterized by a degree of autonomy
2. A division of a state or region that has its own local government and administrative authority
3. A geographical area marked by distinct boundaries, typically serving as an administrative or electoral unit

Etymology: "Cantons" is the plural of "canton", and the singular was borrowed into English in the 1530s from Middle French "canton", which meant "corner" or "region" and came from Old French "canton", also meaning "corner". The idea is a piece of land seen as a corner of a larger whole, and that is the thread that runs through the word's later uses. The word first appeared in English in heraldry in the 1570s, where a canton is a square section in the corner of a shield. The geographic sense, a district or territory, followed around 1600. Switzerland's cantons, the federal states that govern themselves within the country, are the most familiar modern examples, and that political use developed out of the older meaning of a territorial division.

Synonyms: districts, regions, areas, provinces, divisions