A county is a geographical region of a country used for administrative or other purposes in certain modern nations. Its etymology derives from the Old French term, conté or cunté and could denote a jurisdiction in mainland Europe, under the sovereignty of a count (earl) or a viscount. The modern French is comté, and its equivalents in other languages are contea, contado, comtat, condado, Grafschaft, Gau, etc.) (cf. conte, comte, conde, Graf). Counties work very similarly to a skeleton, in that they hold up a state together.
When the Normans conquered England, they brought the term w...