ˈhintə(r)ˌland, -laa(ə)nd noun
Etymology: German, from hinter rear + land
1.
a. : a region behind a coast or other usually specified place
the herdsmen have tended to avoid the immediate hinterland of the coast — Walter Fitzgerald
specifically : the territory extending inland from a coastal colony (as along a river system or to the recognized boundary of another territory) over which the colonial power is sometimes held to possess sovereignty
b. : a region that provides supplies for the nation controlling it
the vast hinterland Nazi Germany has conquered in eastern and southern Europe — New Republic
c. : a region remote from cities and towns : wilderness
when this section, then a rough and rugged hinterland , was first being settled — American Guide Series: Minnesota
d. : a part of a country or region lying beyond any or all of its metropolitan or cultural centers : interior , sticks
by various profound thinkers in the hinterland and by their counterparts in New York — G.J.Nathan
steer the American out of the capital cities abroad and into the hinterlands, into the country pubs and … village taverns — Horace Sutton
2. : the area often including satellites of which a city is the economic or cultural center : an urban zone of influence
sometimes the hinterlands of different seaports overlap — W.G.Moore
3. : a little-known sometimes contributory area of knowledge : frontier
a hinterland of surgery hitherto neglected by the regular practitioner — W.T.Stead
: background
taught … to read around a subject, to understand its hinterland — Hewlett Johnson