suburb

[suhb-urb] /ˈsʌb ɜrb/
noun
1.
a district lying immediately outside a city or town, especially a smaller residential community.
2.
the suburbs, the area composed of such districts.
3.
an outlying part.
Origin
1350-1400; Middle English < Latin suburbium, equivalent to sub- sub- + urb(s) city + -ium -ium
Related forms
suburbed, adjective
unsuburbed, adjective
Examples from the web for suburb
  • Ask students if they know the difference between a city and a suburb.
  • Instead, they've decided to stay put and renovate their city apartment or fix up their small house in an older, closer-in suburb.
  • We need to find ways to make this argument stick in every city, suburb and rural town.
  • For example, if you live in a suburb, you could have students research historical sites in the city.
  • Urban sprawl is visible in the expansion of suburb-style communities around city centers.
  • The new kind of suburb wasn't supposed to be so suburban.
  • So begins the succession from country to suburb to sprawl.
  • He was exactly the kind of satisfied old bird you will find in every suburb and every holiday place.
  • They readily adapt to new environments and human suburb style settings are actually a huge breeding area for foxes.
  • Even an efficient van answering computer routings from cellphone calls in a suburb will be expensive.
British Dictionary definitions for suburb

suburb

/ˈsʌbɜːb/
noun
1.
a residential district situated on the outskirts of a city or town
Derived Forms
suburbed, adjective
Word Origin
C14: from Latin suburbium, from sub- close to + urbs a city
Word Origin and History for suburb
n.

mid-14c., "residential area outside a town or city," from Old French suburbe, from Latin suburbium "an outlying part of a city," from sub "below, near" (see sub-) + urbs (genitive urbis) "city." An Old English word for it was underburg. Close to crowds but just beyond the reach of municipal jurisdiction, suburbs in 17c., especially those of London, had a sense of "inferior, debased, and licentious habits or life" (e.g. suburban sinner, slang for "loose woman, prostitute"). By 1817, the tinge had shifted to "inferior manners and narrow views." Compare also French equivalent faubourg.

[T]he growth of the metropolis throws vast numbers of people into distant dormitories where ... life is carried on without the discipline of rural occupations and without the cultural resources that the Central District of the city still retains. [Lewis Mumford, 1922]