Origin and history of fatherland

Middle English fader, from Old English fæder "he who begets a child, nearest male ancestor;" also "any lineal male ancestor; the Supreme Being," and by late Old English, "one who exercises parental care over another," from Proto-Germanic *fader (source also of Old Saxon fadar, Old Frisian feder, Dutch vader, Old Norse faðir, Old High German fatar, German vater; in Gothic usually expressed by atta).

This is from the PIE root *pəter- "father" (source also of Sanskrit pitar-, Greek pater, Latin pater, Old Persian pita, Old Irish athir "father"), which is presumably from baby-speak sound "pa." The ending formerly was regarded as an agent-noun affix. The classic example of Grimm's Law, where PIE "p-" becomes Germanic "f-."

The spelling with -th- (15c.) reflects a widespread phonetic shift in Middle English that turned -der to -ther in many words, perhaps reinforced in this case by Old Norse forms; the spelling caught up to pronunciation in 1500s (compare mother (n.), weather (n.), hither, gather).

As a title of various Church dignitaries from c. 1300; the meaning "creator, inventor, author" is from mid-14c.; that of "anything that gives rise to something else" is from late 14c. As a respectful title for an older man, recorded from 1550s. Father-figure is from 1954. Fathers "leading men, elders" is from 1580s.

My heart leaps up when I behold

 A rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began;

So is it now I am a man;

So be it when I shall grow old,

 Or let me die!

The Child is father of the Man;

I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

[Wordsworth, 1802]

Middle English lond, from Old English lond, land, "ground, soil, solid substance of the earth's surface," also "definite portion of the earth's surface, home region of a person or a people, territory marked by political boundaries," from Proto-Germanic *landja- (source also of Old Norse, Old Frisian Dutch, Gothic land, German Land).

Boutkan finds no IE etymology and suspects a substratum word in Germanic. Watkins suggested a reconstructed PIE root *lendh- (2), source also of Old Irish land, Middle Welsh llan "an open space," Welsh llan "enclosure, church," Breton lann "heath," source of French lande (a word sometimes used in English in reference to terrain in southwest France); Old Church Slavonic ledina "waste land, heath," Czech lada "fallow land."

Etymological evidence and Gothic use indicates the original Germanic sense was "a definite portion of the earth's surface owned by an individual or home of a nation." The meaning was early extended to "solid surface of the earth," a sense which once had belonged to the ancestor of Modern English earth (n.). Original senses of land in English now tend to go with country.

Also "ground considered as a subject of use or possession," especially, in law, "ground that can be held as individual property" (1620s).

Land, ho! as a nautical cry upon first sighting of land after a crossing is by 1836 in the American English (see ho (interj.)), an earlier exclamation is said to have been land to (17c.). In the U.S. exclamation land's sakes (by 1834 in representation oof New England dialect), etc., land is a euphemism for Lord.

The Land of the _____ (living, lost, leal, midnight sun, etc.) construction was in Old English. Land bridge "hypothetical former connection between two masses of land that have been long separated" is attested by 1886, using geology to explain biology.

 The land office (1726) in American colonies and later the U.S. transacted business involving the location and settlement of public lands; to do land-office business (1838) was to be busily successful, a colloquial expression from the land-rush era.

LAND OFFICE BUSINESS.—During the year ending the 31st of Dec last, sales were made at the Kalamazoo (Michigan) Land Office, to the amount of $2,043,866.87. The number of acres sold was 1,634,511.082. All the above sales were made in one hundred and sixty-nine days—the various interruptions to the course of business, allowing but that number of days. [item widely reprinted in U.S. newspapers Feb.-March 1837]

Land Rover is by 1948 as the trade name of a sturdy 4-wheel-drive vehicle for offroad driving or work in rough country.