Why is a country referred to as "she"?

[BondGirl]

This question has bugged me for YEARS and if anyone can answer it, I will streak through the centre of London at rush hour..on second thoughts, don't even think of answering!

So why is a country called "she"?

e.g: She set her ships a-sail to guard her waters?

I hear this so many times, and yet still don't know why!

PLEASE help!!  Thanks!

[Quizmonster]

In Old English, nouns still had gender...that is, they were masculine, feminine or neuter, just as they still are in German, for instance. When using appropriate pronouns, these would be he, she and it, respectively. When that system broke up, 'it' was used as the pronoun to refer to all ordinary nouns. However, some things considered somehow especially masculine were still referred to as 'he' for a long time afterwards - eg mountains, oak-trees etc - and others were still referred to as 'she' - eg boats, carriages etc. The word 'country' itself comes from the Late Latin word 'contrata', which is also feminine.
The answer to your question as to why countries are called �she' is, therefore, a combination of language-development and history.

[Quizmonster]

I was going to mention the idea of a 'motherland' above, but, of course, people also speak of their 'fatherland'!

[kempie]

... also humans feel the need to personify inanimate objects; Britain is often portrayed as Britannia and France has La Marianne.  Although I'm pretty certain that the children of Uncle Sam do not refer to their country as 'he'.

[Peter Pedant]

Ships are she was well, remember

Anglo sacon had the standard gender, and adjecttives agreed with the nouns. In order to get adjectives to agree with the gender of the possessor - his and her, the nouns have to go through a phase of common, neutral gender which I thought had not been identified in AS, but which must nonetheless have occurred.

[elpheba]

can't help you but i have that same Q good nluck finding that out.