Uplands

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Areas of elevated land or hills usually found above lower ground
2. Regions that rise higher than the surrounding terrain, often characterized by hills
3. Elevated stretches of land that are typically higher than the nearby landscape

Etymology: "Uplands" is simply the plural of "upland," so the story lies in the singular. In Old English, "ūpland" meant something close to "the country" as opposed to towns or the sea, a sense that the word kept for centuries. Its parts are "up" and "land," and the compound described land lying higher up, away from the lowlands where people had long settled and farmed. The word moved from a noun for open country to an adjective in Middle English, so people could speak of an upland village or upland pasture without needing a separate phrase. The plural "uplands" is now the usual way to refer to a whole region of such high ground, as in the uplands of Scotland or the uplands of southern England.

Synonyms: highlands, elevations