Dictionary

home county en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (in-plural, often) Any of the counties that surround London in the south-east of England.
   • Owing to the comparative nearness to London and populous home county centres, road competition is keen for goods as well as summer passenger business. 1940 July, R. A. H. Weight, “Hastings—An Interesting Traffic Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 391:
   • “I think my accent must have morphed to fit in, because I speak with I think they call it home county vowels,” she laughs. 2025 December 20, Laura Battle, quoting Maggie Aderin-Pocock, “Lunch with the FT: Maggie Aderin-Pocock”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3:
   • Think home counties, and the sorts of things that come to mind are blue-rinse, golf courses and village halls. This is a stereotype we need to reconsider based on the latest demographic shifts we are seeing in and around London. 2017 October 12, Ian Warren, “How the Conservatives lost their home counties heartland”, in The Guardian:

Forms

Relateds

home nation