suburb
pronunciation
How to pronounce suburb in British English:
UK [ˈsʌbɜːb]
How to pronounce suburb in American English:
US [ˈsʌbɜːrb]
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- Noun:
- a residential district located on the outskirts of a city
Word Origin
- suburb
- suburb: see urban
- suburb (n.)
- early 14c., "area outside a town or city," whether agricultural or residential but most frequently residential, from Old French suburbe "suburb of a town," from Latin suburbium "an outlying part of a city" (especially Rome), from sub "below, near" (see sub-) + urbs (genitive urbis) "city" (see urban). Glossed in Old English as underburg. Just beyond the reach of municipal jurisdiction, suburbs had a bad reputation in 17c. England, especially those of London, and suburban had a sense of "inferior, debased, licentious" (as in suburban sinner, slang for "loose woman, prostitute"). By 1817, the tinge had shifted to "of inferior manners and narrow views." Compare also French equivalent faubourg. [T]he growth of the metropolis throws vast numbers of people into distant dormitories where ... life is carried on without the discipline of rural occupations and without the cultural resources that the Central District of the city still retains. [Lewis Mumford, 1922]
Example
- 1. Wembley is not london 's most appealing suburb .
- 2. Falls church virginia is really a suburb of washington dc .
- 3. But like his ageing neighbours , the nagasaki suburb is collapsing around him .
- 4. One can see the problem clearly in badalona , an industrial suburb of barcelona .
- 5. The birmingham neighborhood of pratt city and the suburb of pleasant grove were among the most devastated , cnn reported .