urban
Meanings
Adjective
- relating to or concerned with a city or densely populated area
- "urban sociology"
- "urban development"
- located in or characteristic of a city or city life
- "urban property owners"
- "urban affairs"
- "urban manners"
Adj
- Of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or happening or located in, a city or town; of, pertaining to, or characteristic of life in such a place, especially when contrasted with the countryside.
- Living in a city or town.
- Having authority or jurisdiction over a city or town.
- Relating to contemporary African American culture, especially in music.
- (of inhabitants or residents) Black; African American.
Origin / Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French urbain (“belonging to a city, urban; courteous, refined, urbane”) (modern French urbain), or from its etymon Latin urbānus (“of or belonging to a city, urban; of manners or style: like those of city dwellers: cultivated, polished, refined, sophisticated”) + English -an (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Urbānus is derived from urbs (“city; walled town; Rome”) (further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʰerdʰ- (“to encircle, enclose; a belt; an enclosure, fence”) or *werbʰ- (“to enclose”)) + -ānus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives).
For the euphemistic or proscribed term, it was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music.
Scrabble Score: 7
urban is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordurban is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
urban is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary