country code
<networking, standard> Originally, a two-letter abbreviation
for a particular country, generally used as a top-level
domain.
Originally, as the name implies, country codes were meant just
for countries; but over time, country codes were allocated for
many areas (mostly islands) that aren't countries -- such as
Antarctica (aq), Christmas Island (cx) and Saint Pierre et
Miquelon (pm).
Country codes are based on ISO 3166 and are used as the top
level domain for Internet hostnames in most countries but
hardly ever in the USA (code "us").
Latest list (ftp://ftp.ripe.net/iso3166-countrycodes.txt).
(2003-05-02)
