Old English heohlond "mountainous country;" see high (adj.) + land (n.). Highlands "mountainous district of Scotland" first recorded early 15c.

also heart-land, 1904, first recorded in geo-political writings of English geographer H.J. MacKinder (1861-1947), from heart (n.) in figurative sense "center, core" + land (n.).

1735, from flat (adj.) + land (n.). Edwin Abbott's popular book about an imaginary two-dimensional world was published in 1884.

"country around the River Rhine," especially to the west of it, 1670s, from German Rheinland; see Rhine + land (n.). Related: Rheinlander.

land lower than other land thereabouts, c. 1500, originally with reference to the southern and eastern regions of Scotland, from low (adj.) + land (n.). As an adjective from 1560s. Related: Lowlander.

c. 1600, "place on a shore where persons or goods are landed from boats," verbal noun from land (v.1). In architecture, "part of a floor adjoining a flight of stairs," also "resting place interrupting a flight of stairs," 1789. Landing place is from 1510s.

also land-line, by 1861, originally a telegraph wire run over land (as opposed to under sea); from land (n.) + line (n.). Later (by 1965), a telephone line which uses wire or some other material (distinguished from a radio or cellular line).

Old English heafod lond "strip of land left unplowed at the edge of a field to leave room for the plow to turn," naturally identified with boundaries; see head (n.) + land (n.). Meaning "high cape, promontory" is from 1520s.

imaginary city built in air, 1830, translating Aristophanes' Nephelokokkygia in "The Birds" (414 B.C.E.). Cloud-land "place above the earth or away from the practical things of life, dreamland, the realm of fancy" is attested from 1840.

1660s, from home (n.) + land (n.). Old English hamland meant "enclosed pasture." Not in Century Dictionary (U.S., 1910); in more extensive use in U.S. after 2001.