town

Pronunciation

• IPA: /taʊn/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English toun, inherited from Old English tūn (“enclosure; enclosed land with its buildings; village”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *tūną (“fenced place”),^[2][3][5] which Barnhart and Etymonline regard as a very early borrowing, from Proto-Celtic *dūnom (“hill, hill fort”).^[2][3] Its Germanic cognates include Old Saxon tūn (“fence, hedge”), Dutch tuin (“garden”) and German Zaun (“fence”);^[2][3][4] the Celtic words include Old Irish dún (“fortress”), Welsh din (“fort”), and the -dūnum of Gaulish place names such as Augustodūnum.^[5][6][4] It is related to down, “hill”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An enclosure, the enclosed land around a dwelling: Old English tūn, 601–604.^[7][2] By about 700 it also meant a village.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old English tūn was also a farmstead with its buildings, from about 890,^[7] and a small cluster of houses, a hamlet, from about 725.^[7] An inhabited place larger and more regularly built than a village is first recorded in 1154, after the Norman Conquest,^[7][2][8] corresponding to the French ville.^[2] Town without an article (to town) is from about 1250,^[7] and town as opposed to the country from about 1386.^[7] The inhabitants of a town are the town from the 14th century.^[5] In the United States a town is a division of local government from the 19th century.^[5] The talk of the town is from the 1620s.^[8] In Scotland town long kept the sense “farmstead”.^[4][9]

Timeline

• 601–604 – Old English tūn, an enclosure.^[7][2]
• c. 700 – a village.^[2]
• c. 890 – a farmstead.^[7]
• 1154 – a town larger than a village.^[7]
• c. 1330 – Middle English toun.^[2]
• c. 1386 – town as opposed to the country.^[7]
• 1620s – the talk of the town.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A settlement larger than a village and usually smaller than a city.
2. The people of such a place.
3. A township.
4. The commercial centre of an area: going into town.
5. The town, or city life, as opposed to the country.
6. (Scotland, historical) A farmstead.

Word family

• townless

Related words

• township
• townsfolk
• townspeople
• down
• dune

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)