город

Forms

го́род (górod) m inan (genitive го́рода, nominative plural города́, genitive plural городо́в, relational adjective городско́й, diminutive городо́к, augmentative городи́ще, pejorative городи́шко)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old East Slavic городъ (gorodŭ), from Proto-Slavic *gȏrdъ (“enclosure; fortification, town”).^[2][3][1][4] The Slavic forms include Ukrainian город (horod), Polish gród, Czech hrad (“castle”), Serbo-Croatian гра̑д (grȃd), Bulgarian град (grad) and Old Church Slavonic градъ (gradŭ, “city; garden”).^[2][3] The East Slavic form shows pleophony: ⟨*gordъ⟩ became ⟨город⟩, while metathesis gave ⟨град⟩ in South Slavic and in Church Slavonic, and Russian borrowed this as град.^[1][5]

The Slavic noun is a verbal noun with the o-grade from Proto-Indo-European *gʰerdʰ- (“to enclose, encircle”), so its first sense was “enclosed place”.^[6][7][3] Its cognates are Lithuanian gardas (“enclosure, pen”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐍃 (gards, “house”), Old Norse garðr (“fence, yard”), Old High German gart, Albanian gardh (“fence”), Sanskrit गृह (gṛhá, “house”) and Phrygian -gordum (“town”) in Manegordum.^[2][3][6] The same root with another vowel grade is in жердь and зород, “a fenced place for a haystack”.^[3][2] Vasmer rejects the old view that the Slavic word was borrowed from Gothic.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The 12th-century copy of the Life of Theodosius of the Caves, written about 1088, has и тако ѹстрьмисѧ къ кыѥвѹ городѹ “and so he set off for the city of Kiev”.^[8][9] A Novgorod treaty of 1189–1199 speaks of goods held в рускыхъ городѣхъ “in the Russian towns”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Chernykh traces the sense from “fence” through “fortification, fortress” to “town”.^[7][3] Old Russian still had all of them, as well as “siege engine”: Sreznevsky glosses городъ as fence, fortification, fortress, town and siege machine.^[10] Under 1224 the Novgorod chronicle tells how the Russians at the Kalka built themselves городъ, a palisade, and fought from it for three days.^[8][11] In the Pskov chronicle under 1323 the Germans attack the town with городы, siege towers.^[11]

The older senses survive in dialects, where город is a fence.^[12] The old meaning “fortified part of a town” stays in names such as Китай-город.^[13] The adjective городовой meant “provincial, non-Moscow” in the Ulozhenie of 1649, and горожанка is first recorded in 1790.^[7]

Timeline

• 12th century – къ кыѥвѹ городѹ in the Life of Theodosius of the Caves.^[8]
• 1189–1199 – в рускыхъ городѣхъ “in the Russian towns” in a Novgorod treaty.^[8]
• 1224 – городъ “palisade, fortification” in the First Novgorod Chronicle.^[8]
• 1649 – the adjective городовой “provincial” in the Ulozhenie.^[7]
• 1790 – горожанка “townswoman” in the Academy dictionary.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A city or town: a large settlement that is an administrative, commercial, industrial and cultural centre.^[13][1]
2. (colloquial) The central part of a town, as opposed to its outskirts and suburbs.^[13][1]
3. (historical) In old Rus': a settlement enclosed by a wall or rampart; a fortress.^[13]
4. (singular) Town life and town places, as opposed to the countryside.^[13]
5. In the game of городки: the square on which the pieces are set up.^[13]

Word family

• городок
• городской
• городище
• городовой
• городничий
• пригород
• горожанин

Related words

• городить
• изгородь
• огород
• град
• жердь
• Old East Slavic городъ (gorodŭ)

Usage notes

The plural is города́; the 18th century also had го́роды and the locative на городу́.^[14] Вечный город is Rome.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress, p. 1, 443
3. ^ a b c d e f Shansky, N. M.; Zhuravlev, A. F. (eds.) (1963–2007), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka [Этимологический словарь русского языка], vols. 1–10 (A–M), Moskva: Izdatel'stvo Moskovskogo universiteta, p. 4, s.v. город
4. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 178
5. ^ Tsyganenko, G. P. (1989), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka [Этимологический словарь русского языка], 2nd ed., Kiev: Radjans'ka škola, p. s.v. город
6. ^ a b Shaposhnikov, A. K. (2010), Ètimologičeskij slovar' sovremennogo russkogo jazyka [Этимологический словарь современного русского языка], 2 vols., Moskva: Flinta / Nauka, p. 1, 189
7. ^ a b c d e Chernykh, P. Ya. (1993), Istoriko-ètimologičeskij slovar' sovremennogo russkogo jazyka [Историко-этимологический словарь современного русского языка], 2 vols., Moskva: Russkij jazyk, p. 1, s.v. город
8. ^ a b c d e f Avanesov, R. I. et al. (eds.) (1988–), Slovar' drevnerusskogo jazyka (XI–XIV vv.) [Словарь древнерусского языка (XI–XIV вв.)], vols. 1–13, Moskva: Russkij jazyk / Azbukovnik, p. 2, s.v. городъ
9. ^ Vinogradova, V. L. (1965–1984), Slovar'-spravočnik «Slova o polku Igoreve» [Словарь-справочник «Слова о полку Игореве»], 6 vols., Moskva / Leningrad: Nauka, p. s.v. городъ
10. ^ Sreznevsky, I. I. (1893–1912), Materialy dlja slovarja drevne-russkago jazyka po pis'mennym pamjatnikam [Материалы для словаря древнерусского языка по письменным памятникам], 3 vols., Sankt-Peterburg: Imperatorskaja Akademija nauk, p. 1, s.v. городъ
11. ^ a b Barkhudarov, S. G. et al. (eds.) (1975–), Slovar' russkogo jazyka XI–XVII vv. [Словарь русского языка XI–XVII вв.], vols. 1–31, Moskva: Nauka / Azbukovnik / Lexrus, p. 4, 90
12. ^ Filin, F. P.; Sorokoletov, F. P.; Myznikov, S. A. (eds.) (1965–), Slovar' russkix narodnyx govorov [Словарь русских народных говоров], vols. 1–51, Moskva / Leningrad / Sankt-Peterburg: Nauka, p. 7, 55
13. ^ a b c d e f g Ozhegov, S. I.; Shvedova, N. Yu. (1997), Tolkovyj slovar' russkogo jazyka [Толковый словарь русского языка], 4th ed., Moskva: Azbukovnik, p. s.v. город
14. ^ Sorokin, Yu. S. et al. (eds.) (1984–), Slovar' russkogo jazyka XVIII veka [Словарь русского языка XVIII века], vols. 1–24, Leningrad / Sankt-Peterburg: Nauka, p. s.v. город