From an alteration (due to Dutch landschap) of earlier landskip, lantschip, from Middle English *landschippe, *landschapp, from Old English landsċipe, landsċeap (“region, district, tract of land”); in some senses from Dutch landschap (“region, district, province, landscape”), from Middle Dutch landscap, lantscap (“region”), from Old Dutch *landskepi, *landskapi (“region”). Cognate with Scots landskape, landskep, landskip (“landscape”), West Frisian lânskip (“landscape”), Low German landschop (“landscape, district”), German Landschaft (“landscape, countryside, scenery”), Danish landskab (“landscape, countryside”), Swedish landskap (“landscape, scenery, province”), Icelandic landskapur (“countryside”). By surface analysis, land + -ship.
A portion of land or territory as defined by its landform, its geographical (and architectural) features.
Piſcat[or]. [...] [T]heſe Hills though high, bleak, and craggy, breed and feed good Beef, and Mutton above ground, and afford good ſtore of Lead within. / Viat[or]. They had need of all thoſe commodities to make amends for the ill Land-ſchape: [...]1676, Charles Cotton, chapter II, in The Compleat Angler. Being Instructions How to Angle for a Trout or Grayling in a Clear Stream. Part. II., 5th edition, London: […] Richard Marriott, and Henry Brome […], →OCLC, page 12:
Ahead the flanks of the Pennines gleamed faintly in the moonlight, looking as though they themselves were part of some dry and deserted lunar landscape.1960 January, G. Freeman Allen, “"Condor"—British Railways' fastest freight train”, in Trains Illustrated, page 48:
1 more example
Its steel helped build America, from the skyscrapers dotting city landscapes to the cars speeding down highways, to the appliances inside millions of homes.2025 June 13, Luciana Lopez and Chris Isidore, “US Steel and Nippon Steel say Trump has approved their partnership”, in CNN Business:
2
A portion of land which the eye can comprehend in a single view, including all the objects thus seen.
The rolling Chocolate Hills of Bohol in the Philippines could easily be mistaken for a child’s landscape drawing.2025 April 22, Joe Minihane, “24 of the world’s most unusual landscapes”, in CNN:
3
A sociological aspect of a physical area.
In light of such conceptualisations of the power of linguistic landscapes, we set out to examine the connection between the visual landscape and the spoken landscape in our institution[.]2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 2:
4
A picture representing a real or imaginary scene by land or sea, the main subject being the general aspect of nature, as fields, hills, forests, water, etc.
The mother, Ekaterina Pavlovna, who at one time had been handsome, but now, asthmatic, depressed, vague, and over-feeble for her years, tried to entertain me with conversation about painting. Having heard from her daughter that I might come to Shelkovka, she had hurriedly recalled two or three of my landscapes which she had seen in exhibitions in Moscow, and now asked what I meant to express by them.1917, Anton Chekhov, translated by Constance Garnett, The Darling and Other Stories, Project Gutenberg, published 9 September 2004, →ISBN, page 71:
From an alteration (due to Dutch landschap) of earlier landskip, lantschip, from Middle English *landschippe, *landschapp, from Old English landsċipe, landsċeap (“region, district, tract of land”); in some senses from Dutch landschap (“region, district, province, landscape”), from Middle Dutch landscap, lantscap (“region”), from Old Dutch *landskepi, *landskapi (“region”). Cognate with Scots landskape, landskep, landskip (“landscape”), West Frisian lânskip (“landscape”), Low German landschop (“landscape, district”), German Landschaft (“landscape, countryside, scenery”), Danish landskab (“landscape, countryside”), Swedish landskap (“landscape, scenery, province”), Icelandic landskapur (“countryside”). By surface analysis, land + -ship.