urbanity

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Archived revision by Rudi Laschenkohl (talk | contribs) as of 02:58, 1 November 2019.
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

WOTD – 26 June 2009
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle French urbanité, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin urbanitas, from urbanus (“belonging to a city”), with a sense of "having the manners of townspeople" in Classical Latin, from urbs (“city”).

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 159: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value UK is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /əːˈbæn.ɪ.ti/
  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 159: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value US is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ɝˈbæn.ə.ti/

Noun

urbanity (countable and uncountable, plural urbanities)

  1. Behaviour that is polished, refined, courteous.
    • 1825, Washington Irving, "Paris at the Restoration", The Crayon Papers,
      The vaunted courtesy of the old school, the smooth urbanity that prevailed in former days […]
    • 1864, Sheridan Le Fanu, Wylder's Hand, Chapter XLVII,
      Wealdon's two little visits explained perfectly the active urbanities of Captain Stanley Lake.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 9, in The China Governess‎[1]:
      Eustace gaped at him in amazement. When his urbanity dropped away from him, as now, he had an innocence of expression which was almost infantile. It was as if the world had never touched him at all.
  2. What is characteristically urban in an area; urbanness.
    • 1955, C.J. Lammers, Studies in Holland flood disaster 1953, vol. 2, p. 39,
      […] , the majority of cases will differ as to "urbanity", as most of the evacuees were rural.
    • 1956, Fred C. Iklé & Harry V. Kincaid, "Social Aspects of Wartime Evacuation of American Cities", Disaster Study, vol 4., p. 44,
      Evacuees, the majority of whom were rural persons, reported more tensions as the urbanity of the reception community increased

Antonyms

Translations

Anagrams

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=urbanity&oldid=57921163"