different between province vs orb

English

Etymology

From Middle English provynce, from Anglo-Norman province, Middle French province, from Latin pr?vincia (“territory brought under Roman domination; official duty, office, charge, province”), from Proto-Indo-European *pr?w- (“right judge, master”). Cognate with Gothic ???????????????????????? (frauja, “lord, master”), Old English fr?a (“ruler, lord, king, master”). See also frow.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?p??v?ns/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p??v?ns/

Noun

province (plural provinces)

1. A region of the earth or of a continent; a district or country. [from 14th c.]
   • 1859, Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species:

     We should find, as we do find, some groups of beings greatly, and some only slightly modified […] in the different great geographical provinces of the world.

2. An administrative subdivision of certain countries, including Canada and China. [from 14th c.]
   • 2016, The Guardian, 4 May:

     All of Fort McMurray, with the exception of Parson’s Creek, was under a mandatory evacuation order on Tuesday, said Robin Smith, press secretary for the regional municipality of Wood Buffalo in the Canadian province [of Alberta].

3. (Roman history) An area outside Italy which is administered by a Roman governor. [from 14th c.]
   • 2008, Mark Brown, The Guardian, 28 November:

     He reminded his audience of events in 88BC, when the same Mithridates invaded the Roman province of Asia, on the western coast of Turkey.

4. (Christianity) An area under the jurisdiction of an archbishop, typically comprising a number of adjacent dioceses. [from 14th c.]
   • 1838, The Churchman, p. 44:

     In 1309, neither the Archbishop of Canterbury nor his suffragans would attend in Parliament while the Archbishop of York had the cross borne erect before him in the province of Canterbury.

5. (Roman Catholicism) An area under the jurisdiction of a provincial within a monastic order.
6. (in the plural, chiefly with definite article) The parts of a country outside its capital city. [from 17th c.]
   • 1937, The Guardian, 1 April:

     To-day the first part of the new Indian Constitution comes into force with the granting of a large measure of autonomy to the provinces.

7. An area of activity, responsibility or knowledge; the proper concern of a particular person or concept. [from 17th c.]
   • 1984, Dorothee Sölle, The Strength of the Weak: Toward a Christian Feminist Identity, page 37:

     Just as money is the province of the economy and truth the province of science and scholarship, so love is the province of the family (Niklas Luhmann).

Usage notes

Province is the generic English term for such primary divisions of a country, but is not used where another official term has widespread use, such as France's regions and departments, Switzerland's cantons, or America's and Australia's states. Territories and colonies are sometimes distinguished from provinces as unorganized areas of low or foreign population, which are not considered an integral part of the country. Sovereign subdivisions of a larger whole, such as the principalities of the former Holy Roman Empire or the countries with the European Union, are likewise not usually described as provinces.

Synonyms

• (principal subdivision of a state): circuit, tao, dao, route, lu (imperial and early Republican China)

Coordinate terms

• canton (Swiss); county (British); department (French); oblast (Russian); state (USA, Australian); voivodeship (Poland)
• shire
• territory

Derived terms

• provincehood
• Provincetown
• provincewide

Related terms

• provincial

Descendants

• Tok Pisin: provins

Translations

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pr?vincia. Doublet of Provence.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p??.v??s/

Noun

province f (plural provinces)

1. province
2. the countryside (of France), the French regions (other than the Parisian region), provincial France

Related terms

• provincial

Further reading

• “province” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Italian

Noun

province f pl

1. plural of provincia

Synonyms

• provincie

Middle English

Noun

province

1. Alternative form of provynce

Middle French

Noun

province f (plural provinces)

1. province (subdivision of a territory)

Descendants

• French: province
• ? Middle English: provynce, provynse, province, provyns
  • English: province
    • Tok Pisin: provins
  • Scots: province

References

• province on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)

Old French

Alternative forms

• provinz, pruvince

Noun

province f (oblique plural provinces, nominative singular province, nominative plural provinces)

1. province (subdivision of a territory)

Descendants

• Middle French: province
  • French: province
  • ? Middle English: provynce, provynse, province, provyns
    • English: province
      • Tok Pisin: provins
    • Scots: province
• Norman: provînche, provinche

References

• province on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub
• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (province, supplement)

Walloon

Noun

province f (plural provinces)

1. province

English

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /o?b/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /??(?)b/
• Rhymes: -??(r)b

Etymology 1

From Middle English orbe, from Old French orbe, from Latin orbis (“circle, orb”). Compare orbit.

Noun

orb (plural orbs)

1. A spherical body; a sphere, especially one of the celestial spheres; a sun, planet, or star
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, A Lover's Complaint

     In the small orb of one particular tear.
2. One of the azure transparent spheres conceived by the ancients to be enclosed one within another, and to carry the heavenly bodies in their revolutions
3. An orbit of an heavenly body
   • 1612, Francis Bacon, Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall, "Of Superstition"

     The schoolmen were like astronomers, which did feign eccentrics, and epicycles, and such engines of orbs.
4. (rare) The time period of an orbit
5. (poetic) The eye, seen as a luminous and spherical entity
6. (poetic) Any revolving circular body, such as a wheel
7. (rare) A sphere of action.
   • 1815, William Wordsworth, "Essay, Supplementary to the Preface"

     By what fatality the orb of my genius […] acts upon these men like the moon upon a certain description of patients, it would be irksome to inquire

   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre Act 1 Scene 2

     But in our orbs we'll live so round and safe.

8. A globus cruciger; a ceremonial sphere used to represent royal power
9. A translucent sphere appearing in flash photography (Orb (optics))
10. (military) A body of soldiers drawn up in a circle, as for defence, especially infantry to repel cavalry.

Synonyms

• (spherical body): ball, globe, sphere
• (circle): circle, orbit
• (a period of time): See Thesaurus:year
• (an eye): See Thesaurus:eye
• (revolving circular body): roller, wheel
• (sphere of action): area, domain, field, province
• (monarch's ceremonial sphere): globe, globus cruciger, mound, orb
• (military formation): globe

Translations

Verb

orb (third-person singular simple present orbs, present participle orbing, simple past and past participle orbed)

1. (poetic, transitive) To form into an orb or circle.
   • 1842, James Russell Lowell, sonnet

     a full-orbed sun
2. (poetic, intransitive) To become round like an orb.
3. (poetic, transitive) To encircle; to surround; to enclose.
   • 1717, Joseph Addison, Metamorphoses

     The wheels were orbed with gold.

Etymology 2

From Old French orb (“blind”), from Latin orbus (“destitute”).

Noun

orb (plural orbs)

1. (architecture) A blank window or panel.
   • 1845, Robert Willis, The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral

     small blank windows or panels, for in later times such panels were called orbs, blind windows

References

• orb in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• BOR, Bor, Bor., ROB, Rob, bor, bro, bro., rob

Aromanian

Alternative forms

• orbu

Etymology

From Latin orbus. Compare Romanian orb.

Adjective

orb m (feminine singular orbe, masculine plural orghi, feminine plural orbi)

1. blind
2. (figuratively) ignorant
3. (figuratively) uncultivated, unrefined, uncivilized

Related terms

• urbari
• urbiatse

See also

• chior

Catalan

Etymology

From Old Occitan (compare Occitan òrb), from Latin orbus (ab ocul?s) (literally “deprived of eyes”) (compare Italian orbo, Romanian orb, French aveugle from the other half of the idiom), from Proto-Indo-European *h?órb?os (“orphan”).

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /???p/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /??rp/

Adjective

orb (feminine orba, masculine plural orbs, feminine plural orbes)

1. blind

Synonyms

• cec

Noun

orb m (uncountable)

1. a fungal disease of wheat and other cereals

Estonian

Etymology

Borrowed from Finnish orpo, from Proto-Finno-Ugric *orpa, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *arbha-s. Cognate with Hungarian árva.

Noun

orb (genitive orvu, partitive orbu)

1. orphan

Declension

Romanian

Etymology

From Latin orbus, from Proto-Indo-European *h?órb?os (“orphan”). Compare Italian orbo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /orb/

Adjective

orb m or n (feminine singular oarb?, masculine plural orbi, feminine and neuter plural oarbe)

1. blind

Declension

Noun

orb m (plural orbi, feminine equivalent oarb?)

1. blind man

Declension

Derived terms

• orbe?
• orbi

Related terms

• orbec?i

See also

• chior
• mut
• surd
• vedea