What is a country mile?

[Panic Button]

Is it longer than an ordinary mile?

[terambulan]

The long and winding road........

[joggerjayne]

Yep.

Have you never asked for directions whilst walking out in the country?

"Excuse me, how far is the nearest pub?"

"Oo arrr, that be about a mile down that there lane, that be"

Effing pub turns out to be at least three miles away

Hence ... a country mile - a huge distance

[Panic Button]

Are you guessing, JJ, or is that the origin?

It sounds like it makes senses.

I thought the usual answer when asking directions in the countryside was 'if I was going there I wouldn't start from here'

[joggerjayne]

I am guessing, but ...

I think it's right (although without the crap yokel accent).

I think measurements are accepted as being a bit more flexible in "the country".

eg. a "yard of ale" actually means a "faceful of beer"

And yes, I have tried one. And no, I couldn't do it (I could barely lift the bl**dy thing!)

[Barmaid]

A country mile is whatever the local inhabitants deem it to be!!!

In court we also have "counsel's five minutes". Which is anything between 10 minutes and 3 hours.

[dundurn]

A bit like the "New York minute" which is always assumed to be shorter than the minute in any other part of the US.

[juandelacruz]

A country mile is a long way for those British people who think themselves clever and modern by borrowing US English. It's accepted that if you lose your language, you lose your culture and the same would apply to your dialect. There are delights in US English, as there are in British English, but to borrow from the USA strikes me as being adolescent and smacks of a colonial mentality. Tim Howard, the US goalkeeper playing in England always refers to football as "soccer" because he said he wanted to keep his US identity. Well said Tim and quite right too. I don't want to lose my identity either. You cannot stop change in language but you do have choice as to which way it changes.

[terambulan]

A country mile is A to B as the crow flies

[fredpuli47]

Tim Howard is only partly 'keeping his identity' in that most British professional footballers call soccer 'football' most of the time.When they don't they call it 'soccer' Many British people,(myself included) have always called it soccer. If Tim Howard had no American accent, his only risk in saying 'soccer' would be that he'd sound rather middle class (since working class people mostly call it football all the time) ' ! . The game has been called soccer since the rules were codified in 1863 (by toffs meeting at Cambridge University) and the governing body , the Football Association, established.(The word soccer was informal, modelled on 'rugger' for 'rugby union football'' , the 'soc' being from the formal name of the game viz asSOCiation football)

[Jd47]

A country mile is a Long distance. Like as far as the eye can see basically because in the country, the land is so open at times that it seems the distance traveled is longer than it actually is.

[Jd47]

A country mile is a Long distance. Like as far as the eye can see basically because in the country, the land is so open at times that it seems the distance traveled is longer than it actually is.