urbacity

English

Etymology

Unknown, but claimed to be a coinage of Percy Adolphus Vaile in the early 20th century (see quote below). Compare urban, -ity, city. Not to be confused with urbanity.

Noun

urbacity (uncountable)

1. (rare) An extreme or exaggerated pride in one's city; an insular view of one's city.
   • 1909, P.A. Vaile, “A new scheme for imperial scholarships”, in The Fortnightly Review, volume 92, page 724:

     The Englishman has quite justly been accused of insularity. That in itself is bad, but there is a compound insularity for which no word of English exists, because the state of mind is not realised. It is the citified insularity of London, London’s “urbacity.” I had to coin a word for it.

   • 1918, The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, volume 125, page 388:

     England has suffered cruelly because she would not think, because she was case-armoured in her insular conceit and the urbacity of her politicians. Insularity would be a term too complimentary and too all-embracing to use of them

   • 1922, Marketing/Communications, volume 118, page 139:

     Urbacity is a disease that attacks dwellers in cities and causes them to imagine that the world is like New York or Kankakee or Gopher Prairie or wherever they happen to live.

   • 2008, Stephen Oliver, “It’s Raining”, in Harmonic‎^[1], page 64:

     It’s raining on Melbourne / on another design concept / made to reassure the citizens / of that city that god-given urbacity / will protect them forever / within a Florentine fantasy.