Also 5 teri-, tery-. [ad. L. territōri-um the land round a town, a domain, district, territory. Etymology unsettled: usually taken as a deriv. of terra earth, land (to which it was certainly referred in popular L. when altered to terrātōrium); but the original form has suggested derivation from terrēre to frighten, whence *territor frightener, territōrium ‘? a place from which people are warned off’ (Roby, Lat. Gr., § 943). So F. territoire (1278 in Godef., Compl.): see also TERROIR.]
1. † a. The land or district lying round a city or town and under its jurisdiction. Chiefly as a rendering of L. territōrium. Obs.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), V. 321. Boecius … was throtelede in the territory Mediolanense.
c. 1460. Oseney Reg., 99. ij. acres of Arable londe In þe territorye or grownde of Cudelynton.
1483. Rolls of Parlt., VI. 256/2. Persons havyng Lands and Tenements in the seid Netheracastre, and within the territory of the same.
1538. Elyot, Territorium, the fyeldes or countraye lyenge within the iurisdiction and boundes of a citie, a territorie.
1598. Manwood, Lawes Forest, i. § 3 (1615), 19. This word [Territorie] is most properly a circuit of ground, contayning a libertie within it selfe, wherein diuers men hauing land within it, and yet the Territorie it selfe doth lie open and not inclosed.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxii. 118. As they governed the City of Rome, and Territories adjacent.
b. The land or country belonging to or under the dominion of a ruler or state. Often applied contextually to the land or country itself of a state, as French territory (= France, the land of France)
1494. Fabyan, Chron., VII. 304. A cytie or towne, called Menne or Meune, within the londe or territorye of ye emperour.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Acts xxviii. 86. We came to Rhegium, a citie in ye borders of Italy situate and lyinge within the territory that belongeth to the Brutians.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., V. iii. 146. Welcome braue Earle into our Territories.
a. 1687. Petty, Pol. Arith., x. (1691), 114. Not being above a sixth or seventh of the whole Territory of England.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. Introd. iv. 93. The kingdom of England, over which our municipal laws have jurisdiction, includes not, by the common law, either Wales, Scotland, or Ireland, or any other part … except the territory of England only.
1789. Constitution U.S., IV. § 3. Rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property of the United States.
1799. Ht. Lee, Canterb. T., Old Wom. T. (ed. 2), I. 359. A small port, still within the Neapolitan territories.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. i. 3. The original Hellas was included in the territory of a little tribe in the south of Thessaly.
1908. Athenæum, 12 Dec., 754/1. The rearrangement of frontiers and territories by Napoleon.
c. Sc. Law. (See quots.)
1765–8. Ekskine, Inst. Law Scot., I. ii. § 16. 27. Since no judge can pronounce sentence on persons or subjects without his territory, civil jurisdiction cannot be founded, unless the defender either, first, reside within the judge’s territory, or, 2dly, be possessed of some estate or subject within it.
1838. W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot., Territory of a Judge is the district over which his jurisdiction extends in causes and in judicial acts proper to him, and beyond which he has no judicial authority.
d. transf. Each half of a football ground considered as belonging to one of the teams: so in hockey, baseball, etc.
1896. Field, 4 Jan., 22/2. A moment later, the visitors … invaded the home territory. Here Jones got smartly away … and … scored a … try.
2. A tract of land, or district of undefined boundaries; a region.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 112. The most fertile territories of Anjou.
1834. L. Ritchie, Wand. by Seine, 5. It was necessary to wrest a territory from the sea itself for [Havre’s] foundation.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 89. The central territory is covered with forests.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer, xvii. 201. Fascinating territories of limitless mulga-downs.
3. fig. a. The domain, space, or region of fact, action, meaning, etc., belonging to or included in a science, art, class, word, etc.; sphere, province.
1640. Bp. Reynolds, Passions, xxxviii. 485. [Going] beyond their owne bounds, into the Territories (as I may so speake) of another Science.
1852. H. Rogers, Ecl. Faith (1864), 271. The whole field of historic investigation seems more or less the territory of scepticism.
1867. J. Martineau, Ess., II. 2. Psychology … has been allowed its title, but not its territory.
1875. Whitney, Life Lang., vii. 110. It is the customary office of a word to cover, not a point, but a territory, and a territory that is irregular, heterogeneous, and variable.
b. Anat. A tract or region of the body pertaining to a particular organ or structure.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 125. The supply of blood to the corresponding hepatic territory is cut off. Ibid. (1899), VI. 716. The symptoms may be confined to the territory of a plexus. Ibid., VIII. 493. A vaso-motor … disturbance, confined to the territory of the vessels concerned.
4. In the United States, One of certain regions in the West belonging to and under the government of the American Republic, and having some degree of self-government, but not yet admitted as a State into the Union.
1799. J. Adams, Wks. (1854), IX. 41. The organization of the government of the Mississippi territory … should perhaps be mentioned to Congress.
1806. Pike, Sources Mississ. (1810), 90. A certificate that he had paid the tax required by a law of the Indian territory, on all retailers of merchandize.
1862. J. E. Cairnes, Rev. Amer., 22. A ‘territory’ … is a portion of the domain of the Union which is not yet a ‘state.’
1888. Schaff, Hist. Chr. Ch., VI. I. xi. 84. The law of the United States is supreme in the Territories.
5. attrib. and Comb.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 28 Oct., 7/2. There can be no compromise … about the territory rights. Ibid. (1901), 21 March, 7/2. The Powers have been territory-hunting.
