municipal

pronunciation

How to pronounce municipal in British English: UK [mjuːˈnɪsɪpl] word uk audio image

How to pronounce municipal in American English: US [mjuːˈnɪsɪpl] word us audio image

Adjective:

relating or belonging to or characteristic of a municipality
of or relating to the government of a municipality

Word Origin

municipal: municipal: [16] Latin mūnus meant ‘office, duty, gift’. Combined with -ceps ‘taker’ (a derivative of the verb capere ‘take’, source of English capture) it formed mūniceps, which denoted a ‘citizen of a Roman city (known as a mūnicipium) whose inhabitants had Roman citizenship but could not be magistrates’. From mūnicipium was derived the adjective mūnicipālis, source of English municipal; this was originally used for ‘of the internal affairs of a state, domestic’, and the modern application to the sphere of local government did not emerge strongly until the 19th century.The stem of Latin mūnus also crops up in commūnis (source of English common), and so community and municipality are etymologically related. Mūnus in the later sense ‘gift’ formed the basis of the Latin adjective mūnificus ‘giving gifts’, hence ‘generous’, from which ultimately English gets munificent [16].=> capture, common

municipal (adj.): 1540s, from Middle French municipal, from Latin municipalis "of a citizen of a free town, of a free town," also "of a petty town, provincial," from municipium "free town, city whose citizens have the privileges of Roman citizens but are governed by their own laws," from municeps "citizen, inhabitant of a free town." Second element is root of capere "assume, take" (see capable). First element is from munus (plural munia) "service performed for the community, duty, work," also "public spectacle paid for by the magistrate, (gladiatorial) entertainment, gift," from Old Latin moenus "service, duty, burden," from PIE *moi-n-es-, generally taken as a suffixed form of root *mei- (1) "to change, go, move" (Watkins; see mutable); but Tucker says "more probably" from the other PIE root *mei- meaning "bind," so that munia = "obligations" and communis = "bound together."

adj.

1. The municipal government of this sacramento suburb eliminates bureaucratic red tape by allowing staff to make many decisions .

2. Whitney 's september 2010 report on municipal finances didn 't contain a single call on a specific municipal bond .

3. Cornaggia says it 's too soon to tell if municipal bonds are finally receiving a fair shake .

5. Perhaps too many municipal analysts live in manhattan to even know about garbage truck schedules .