Etymologically
Log in

landscape

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 03:24. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈlænd.skeɪp/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Dutch landschap (“landscape”),[2][3][4] a painters' term,[2] from lantscap (“region, tract of land”),[3][5][6] from land and -scap, equivalent to English -ship.[3][2][7] It was first written landskip and lantskip, after the Dutch pronunciation.[5][8] Old English had the cognate landscipe “region”, which did not survive into Middle English,[3][2] and German has Landschaft.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A picture of natural inland scenery: 1603 in the OED and Barnhart; a distant prospect or vista is from 1599 in the OED.[9][3] Etymonline notes that in Dutch the term distinguished the scenery from the subject of a painting.[2]

Semantic evolution

Inland scenery in general, painted or real, is from 1606,[9][3] and a view of scenery that can be taken in at once from 1632, in Milton's L'Allegro, 1725 in the OED.[3][9] Trench noted that the early word meant the scene as a pictured model rather than the land itself.[7] The non-artistic sense, a tract of land with its characteristic features, is by 1886.[9][2] The verb, to represent in a landscape, is from 1661, and to lay out grounds with lawns and plants from 1916 in Etymonline, 1927 in the OED.[9][2] The landscape format of a page, wider than it is tall, is from 1932.[9] Skyscape (1817) and townscape were formed on its model.[2]

Timeline

  • 1599 – a vista.[9]
  • 1603 – a picture of scenery.[9][3]
  • 1606 – inland scenery.[9]
  • 1661 – the verb, to depict.[9]
  • 1886 – a tract of land.[9]
  • 1916 – to lay out grounds.[2]
  • 1932 – landscape format.[9]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. An area of land and its scenery as it can be seen.
  2. A painting or photograph of natural scenery, or this kind of art.
  3. The general situation in a field of activity: the political landscape.
  4. A page or picture format that is wider than it is tall.

Verb

  1. To improve a piece of land by shaping it and planting trees and flowers.

Word family

  • landscaper
  • landscapist
  • relandscape
  • -scape
  • landscape gardener
  • landscape gardening
  • landscape architect
  • landscape architecture

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
  8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press