Origins
The word 'provincial' entered English in the fourteenth century from Old French 'provincial,' descended from Latin 'prōvinciālis' (of or belonging to a province), from 'prōvincia' (a province — a territory outside Italy administered by a Roman magistrate). The origin of 'prōvincia' is debated among etymologists. The traditional derivation connects it to 'prō-' (for, before, on behalf of) and 'vincere' (to conquer), making a province literally 'a conquered territory' — land taken by Rome and placed under Roman administration. Some scholars dispute this, proposing instead a connection to an earlier administrative term of uncertain origin.
In Roman usage, 'prōvincia' originally meant any sphere of authority assigned to a magistrate, whether military or administrative. It was only later that the word narrowed to mean a specific governed territory outside Italy. The first Roman provinces were Sicily (241 BCE), Sardinia and Corsica (238 BCE), and the two Spains (197 BCE). Southern Gaul — modern Provence — was conquered in the 120s BCE and was known simply as 'Prōvincia' (the Province) or 'Prōvincia Nostra' (our Province), because it was the nearest and most familiar of Rome's Gallic possessions. The regional name 'Provence' is a direct descendant of this Latin label.
The pejorative sense of 'provincial' — narrow-minded, unsophisticated, behind the times — reflects the cultural hierarchy that has existed in centralized states from Rome to modern France, Britain, and beyond. The capital (Rome, Paris, London) is the center of power, fashion, and culture. The provinces are the periphery — economically dependent, culturally subordinate, out of touch with metropolitan trends. A 'provincial' attitude is one that has not been exposed to the wider world.
Development
This cultural prejudice is ancient and persistent but also contested. Provincials have always pushed back against metropolitan condescension. The French provinces have their own cultural pride. The English 'provinces' (everything outside London) resent London's assumption of centrality. In virtually every centralized country, a tension exists between capital and provinces that the word 'provincial' both names and perpetuates.
The connection to 'vincere' (to conquer) links 'provincial' to a large word family. Latin 'vincere' (from PIE *weyk-, to fight, to conquer) produced 'victory' (the act of conquering), 'victor' (a conqueror), 'convince' (to conquer thoroughly — to overcome someone's doubts), 'convict' (to prove guilty — to conquer someone's defense), 'invincible' (unconquerable), 'evict' (to conquer out — to expel), and 'vanquish' (through Old French 'veinquir,' to conquer). If 'province' indeed derives from 'prō-' + 'vincere,' then calling someone 'provincial' is, at the deepest etymological level, calling them a subject of conquest — someone from conquered territory, living under the authority of the capital.
In ecclesiastical usage, a 'province' is a group of dioceses under the authority of an archbishop, and a 'provincial' is the head of a religious order's province. This administrative sense preserves the original Roman meaning of 'prōvincia' as a sphere of jurisdiction rather than a geographical area.
Legacy
The word 'provincial' thus encodes a geography of power. It names the relationship between center and periphery, capital and countryside, the metropolitan and the marginal. Its pejorative connotation is itself an exercise of power: the capital defines the standard, and deviation from that standard is 'provincial.'