metropolitann.adj.

Brit.

/ˌmɛtrəˈpɒlᵻt(ə)n/, U.S.

/ˌmɛtrəˈpɑlətn/,

/ˌmɛtrəˈpɑlədən/

Forms: late Middle English metropolan (transmission error), late Middle English metropollytan, late Middle English metropolytan, late Middle English–1500s metropolitaine, late Middle English–1600s metropolitane, late Middle English– metropolitan, 1500s metrapolytane, 1500s metropolytane, 1500s–1600s metrapolitan, 1500s–1600s metrapolitane; also Scottish pre-1700 methropolitane, pre-1700 metrapolitan, pre-1700 metrapolitane, pre-1700 metrapolitant, pre-1700 metrapulitant, pre-1700 metropolitane, pre-1700 metropolitanne.

Origin: A borrowing from Latin. Etymon: Latin metropolitanus.

Etymology: < post-classical Latin metropolitanus, adjective and noun (4th cent.) < Hellenistic Greek μητροπολίτης (see metropolite n.) + post-classical Latin -anus -an suffix. Compare Anglo-Norman metropolitan, noun, Old French metropolitain, adjective (1294), Middle French, French métropolitain, adjective and noun (14th cent.).Sense A. 1a is paralleled in post-classical Latin (4th cent.), Anglo-Norman, and Middle French (14th cent.), and sense A. 2 in French (1606). Sense B. 1 is paralleled in post-classical Latin (4th cent.) and Old French, Middle French (1294), sense B. 2a in post-classical Latin (4th cent.) and Middle French (1488), and sense B. 4 in post-classical Latin (4th cent.) and French (1777). The French phrase chemin de fer métropolitain is attested from 1873, probably after English Metropolitan Railway (see sense B. 2c); French métropolitain is recorded from 1874 denoting the Metropolitan Railway of London, and from 1887 denoting the French equivalent.

A. n.

1. Christian Church.

a. Also with capital initial. A bishop having the oversight of the bishops of a province; spec. an archbishop.In the early Church a metropolitan's see was in the metropolis of the province. In the Western Church, the title ‘Metropolitan’ is now roughly coextensive with ‘Archbishop’; in the Orthodox Church the metropolitan ranks above an archbishop and below a patriarch, though the term is now widely given to diocesan bishops as an honorific title.

ΘΚΠ

society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > clerical superior > metropolitan > [noun]

metropolitanc1410

metropolite1578

metropolitan bishop1844

c1410 tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1879) VII. 87 Elphegus bisshop of Wynchestre, when Ulricus metropolitane of Doverus was dede, was madde erchebisshop.

a1475 (a1447) O. Bokenham Mappula Angliae in Englische Studien (1887) 10 25 Nowe yn Englonde byn but ii Metropolitans..& to Caunterbury ben subiecte xiii bysshopryches yn Englonde & iiii yn Walis, But Yoorke haþe but ii vndir hym.

1530–1 Act 22 Hen. VIII c. 15 Wyllyam Archebysshoppe of Canturburye metropolytane and primate of all Englande.

1570 B. Googe tr. T. Kirchmeyer Popish Kingdome iv. 209 For by the same the Bishops haue their full aucthoritie, And Metropolitanes are forced, these dearely for to buie.

1646 H. Hammond View Exceptions to Visct. Falkland's Disc. Infallibilitie 26 It hath beene agreed on, that all that are under the Metropolitan of Canterbury, should be called the Province of Canterbury.

a1674 J. Milton Brief Hist. Moscovia (1682) i. 20 The Emperour esteemeth the Metropolitan next to God, after our Lady, and Saint Nicholas, as being his spiritual Officer.

1710 H. Prideaux Orig. & Right Tithes iii. 149 All the Metropolitans and Bishops of King Gontrans Kingdom.

1768 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. III. v. 65 It [sc. the court of peculiars] has a jurisdiction over all those parishes dispersed through the province of Canterbury in the midst of other dioceses, which are exempt from the ordinary's jurisdiction, and subject to the metropolitan only.

1814 R. Southey Roderick xx. 251 If thou wert still The mitred metropolitan.

1833 R. Pinkerton Russia 189 The Council of Moscow..was attended by..five metropolitans, five archbishops [etc.].

1897 Catholic Dict. (ed. 5) 50/2 At present the terms ‘archbishop’ and ‘metropolitan’ have the same meaning, except that the latter implies the existence of suffragans, whereas there may be archbishops without suffragans, as in the case of Glasgow.

1909 Q. Jrnl. Econ. 23 283 From a very early period the popes exercised the right of confirmation as metropolitans of central Italy.

1970 R. A. H. Robinson Origins of Franco's Spain i. 44 The Metropolitans..told Catholics that they had ‘the strictest duty to take part as actively as possible’ in the elections.

1992 Commentary Feb. 34/2 He in turn conveyed four of these to the Metropolitan of the Syrian Jacobite Church in Jerusalem.

†b. In extended (usually ironic) use: a person wielding supreme authority over others. Obsolete.

ΚΠ

1582 T. Blenerhasset True Minerva sig. C2 b Quoth Pluto, tell my Metropolitan To no such end he hath his princely place.

1583 B. Melbancke Philotimus (new ed.) sig. H ^v My fathers propose was, whether I woulde..consecrate my selfe to the Court where Venus is Metrapolytane and bears the swaye.

1630 T. Randolph Aristippus in Wks. (1875) 32 The Catholic Bishop of Barbers, the very Metropolitan of Surgeons.

1686 tr. J. Chardin Coronation Solyman 59 in Trav. Persia A new Sadre, or Mahometan Pontiff, or Metropolitan of the whole Empire.

1780 W. Cowper Progress of Error 186 Let Comus rise Archbishop of the land; Let him your rubric and your feasts prescribe, Grand Metropolitan of all the tribe.

†2. A chief town, a metropolis. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > [noun] > chief town or capital city

headeOE

mother-boroughc1225

master-borougha1325

sedea1387

chief1393

master-townc1400

metropolitan?a1439

capital city1439

master citya1450

stade1481

metropolea1500

capital1525

seatc1540

head-place1546

chamber1555

mother city1570

metropolis1584

metropolite1591

madam-town1593

capital town1601

seat-town1601

metropolie1633

megapolis1638

county seat1803

Queen City1807

metrop1888

Metroland1951

a1439 J. Lydgate Fall of Princes (Bodl. 263) iv. 1662 (MED) He [sc. Alexander the Great] sette in Grece the myhti strong cite Of Corynthe, the metropolitan, Ther testablisshe his imperial see.

c1550 Complaynt Scotl. (1979) xiii. 87 The toune of tribie quhilk is the methropolitane & capital cite of that cuntre.

1585 T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie ii. ix. 72 b Mytilene..metropolitane of al the townes of Eolea.

1629 J. Gaule Practique Theories Christs Predict. 104 Christ could haue chosen Rome..; or Athens..; or Jerusalem..; And yet poore Nazareth, and little Bethlehem..are..preferred to those renowned Metropolitans.

1692 N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) II. 531 Grenoble, the metropolitane of Dauphigny.

1874 C. H. Spurgeon Treasury of David IV. Ps. lxxxvii. 3 The true ‘eternal city’, the metropolitan, the mother of us all.

†3. figurative. = metropolis n. 3b. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > space > relative position > central condition or position > [noun] > position of being in the midst > point which forms centre for its surroundings > centre of activity, operations, etc.

metropolis1599

metropolitana1620

focus1796

foyer1799

nerve-knot1832

hub1858

nerve centre1870

storm centre1894

nexus1971

a1620 M. Fotherby Atheomastix (1622) ii. ix. §2. 296 The prime and Metropolitan of the Mathematicall Sciences.

1704 N. N. tr. T. Boccalini Advts. from Parnassus II. 204 That Naples should be allow'd the Title of Metropolitan of all Cities whatever for breaking of Colts, and Rome for managing of Men.

4. A native or inhabitant of a metropolis or large city; a person who has metropolitan ideas, manners, etc.

ΘΚΠ

society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [noun] > inhabitant of specific types of town or city

metropolitan1795

outporter1904

small-towner1910

megalopolitan1930

old-towner1973

1795 A. Hughes Jemima I. 83 You are a Paisley by nature as well as by birth, and incapable of becoming a worthy metropolitan.

1815 J. Jekyll in Bentham's Wks. (1843) X. 486 To so inveterate a metropolitan as myself this is no grievance.

1882 E. O'Donovan Merv Oasis II. liv. 407 The people at Merv considered themselves altogether as metropolitans.

1987 A. Brien Lenin ii. 95 I could not believe that these sophisticated metropolitans, all of them Petersburg graduates, could be so..obtuse.

1996 Independent 20 Aug. ii. 2 (heading) The brave new metropolitans.

†5. A citizen of the mother city or parent state of a colony. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [noun] > inhabitant of specific types of town or city > in ancient times

municipal1728

metropolitan1846

1846 G. Grote Hist. Greece II. ii. ii. 311 Both metropolitans and colonists styled themselves Hellens, and were recognised as such by each other.

6. Also with capital initial. [Short for Metropolitan line, railway, etc.: see sense B. 2c.] A metropolitan railway system, service, or train; spec. the Metropolitan line of the London Underground.

ΚΠ

1934 H. G. Wells Exper. in Autobiogr. II. ix. 817 Moscow also is making an imitative tube system... It will be the least stable ‘Metropolitan’ in the world.

1934 H. G. Wells Exper. in Autobiogr. II. ix. 819 The constructors of the new Metropolitan.

1959 Chambers's Encycl. XI. 500/1 The District owned the south side of the Inner Circle from Mansion House to South Kensington... District trains reached Uxbridge over the Metropolitan.

1987 Motive Power Nov. 22/1 The first eastbound tube train from King's Cross was a Metropolitan to Whitechapel.

B. adj.

1. Christian Church. Of or belonging to the see or province of a metropolitan; relating to or characteristic of a metropolitan.metropolitan bishop: see Compounds.

ΘΚΠ

society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > clerical superior > metropolitan > [adjective]

metropolitan1452

metropolitical1541

metropolical1551

metropolitica1555

metropolic1747

1452 in J. B. Sheppard Christ Church Lett. (1877) 17 Our metropolitan churche of Canterbury..stondith nowe destitute of a fader.

a1475 (a1447) O. Bokenham Mappula Angliae in Englische Studien (1887) 10 24 (MED) Seynt Austyne..translatyd þe metropolytan see..to Caunterbury.

1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VIII f. ccxlvij The Metrapolitan Churche of Saint Andrewes.

a1600 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie vii. viii, in Wks. (1662) 24 Archiepiscopal or Metropolitan prerogatives are those mentioned in old Imperial constitutions,..to convocate the holy Bishops under them within the compass of their own Provinces.

1647 N. Bacon Hist. Disc. Govt. 35 London had the Metropolitane See, or was chiefest in precedency.

1726 J. Ayliffe Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani 91 An Archbishop..was elected by Provincial Bishops meeting together in the Metropolitan Church.

1876 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest V. xxiii. 317 Henry of Winchester pleaded hard..that the ancient capital should be raised to primatial rank, as the metropolitan see of Wessex.

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 502/2 He held the appointment of canon in the metropolitan church of Florence.

a. Of, belonging to, or constituting a metropolis (in early use spec. London). Also: designating a political association of individual cities within an urban agglomeration, as metropolitan Toronto, etc.

ΘΚΠ

society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > [adjective] > chief town or capital city

capital1439

metropolitan1555

metropolic?1575

metropolite1591

metropolitical1595

Metro1957

1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde f. 259 The metrapolitane citie of Moscouia cauled Mosca.

1699 E. Ward London Spy I. iii. 7 A full Prospect of our Metropolitan Maypole.

1785 W. Cowper Task iii. 737 Are not wholesome airs..To be preferred to smoke, to the eclipse That metropolitan volcanoes make?

1864 Act 27 & 28 Vict. c. 116 §8 This Act may be cited..as the ‘Metropolitan Houseless Poor Act, 1864’.

1930 H. Crane Let. 29 Nov. (1965) 359 In one of the many Doubleday-Doran shops in the metropolitan area.

1936 E. Van Cleef Trade Centers & Trade Routes iii. 34 The immediately contiguous territory within the continuous hinterland which in some instances contributes to the formation of the metropolitan city has been termed by the Germans, the ‘Umland’ or country about.

1958 Listener 11 Dec. 981/2 The pattern of ‘metropolitan segregation’ (as it has been called) has opened a new, and a frightening, chapter of the ‘American Dilemma’.

1969 Daily Tel. 12 June 23/2 Three areas—Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool—will become Metropolitan authorities, with the key functions of planning, transportation and development.

1972 Times 12 Feb. 14/8 His Lordship had not failed to observe the practice in some metropolitan courts.

1974 Daily Tel. 1 Apr. 6/4 The 45 new counties will contain 332 districts, including 36 metropolitan districts covering towns in the six metropolitan counties.

1994 N.Y. Times 11 Sept. xiii. 3/3 The large amount of aircraft passing through the metropolitan area.

b. Inhabiting a metropolis; characteristic of or influenced by the metropolis, its way of life, etc. In early use frequently in negative sense: †over-sophisticated, sexually promiscuous, corrupt (obsolete). Now usually in positive sense: urbane, sophisticated, excitingly varied, cosmopolitan.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the earth > named regions of earth > named cities or towns > [adjective] > in Britain > London

metropolitan1640

Londonized1832

Londonish1838

cis-pontine1860

Londonesque1862

Londony1884

1640 N. Richards Trag. Messallina iv. sig. E5 Spoake like thy selfe, my metropolitan Cut throate of chastitie.

1673 in J. W. Draper Cent. Broadside Elegies (1928) 119/2 And she grown up to years, acquiring man, Improv'd, till she was Metropolitan.

1740 C. Cibber Apol. Life C. Cibber xiv. 272 A great deal of that false, flashy wit, and forc'd humour, which had been the delight of our metropolitan multitude.

1886 E. L. Bynner Agnes Surriage xv. 173 How fast he was losing metropolitan tone and polish in the wilds of America.

1887 E. Dowden Life Shelley I. vi. 236 Dublin had sunk from a metropolitan to a provincial city.

1902 A. M. Fairbairn Philos. Christian Relig. ii. ii. iii. 487 The Synagogue was provincial and sectarian, but the Temple was metropolitan and collective.

1967 M. L. King Where do we go from Here? (1968) App. 234 The United States is now a metropolitan nation and will become more so.

1984 V. S. Naipaul Finding Centre i. 25 A busy, alert man, deep in the metropolitan excitements of London.

c. Of, designating, or relating to an underground railway system or line serving a metropolis; spec. (with capital initial) designating one of the lines of the London Underground, or a train travelling on that line.

ΘΚΠ

society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [adjective] > types of railway > relating to underground railway

metropolitan1858

1858 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. 21 156 (title) Metropolitan Railway terminal accommodation and its effect on traffic results.

1867 A. Trollope Claverings II. xix. 233 He was very keen at the present moment about Metropolitan railways.

c1875 ‘Brenda’ Froggy's Little Brother (new ed.) iii. 33 A Metropolitan train was just in, and a crowd of passengers, as usual, came swarming up the steps into the street.

1883 E. W. Hamilton Diary 13 Nov. (1972) II. 505 The proposal of the Metropolitan Railway to run an underground line from the back of the India Office to Knightsbridge, and thence across the Park to the Marble Arch and up the Edgeware Road.

1909 G. K. Chesterton Tremendous Trifles 244 A Metropolitan station, where I took a train home.

1974 M. Birmingham You can help Me ii. 38 The Metropolitan train from Euston Square..[to] Aldgate East.

d. Ceramics. Designating a type of lead-glazed, red slipware made in or near London in the 17th and early 18th centuries.

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > clay compositions > baked clay > pottery or ceramics > [adjective] > types of English pottery

Liverpool1750

Wedgwood1787

Mason1804

Plymouth1816

Rockingham1840

Leeds1863

Jackfield1866

Spode1869

Whieldon1869

Minton1871

Doulton1873

Toft1878

Lambeth1884

Wrotham1884

metropolitan1891

Astbury1904

Pratt1920

Malling1933

1891 J. E. Hodgkin & E. Hodgkin Examples Early Eng. Pottery 6 Of a less decorative character than most of the slip-decorated pieces is the ware which we have classed..as Metropolitan Slip, the pieces in this group having been mainly found in or near London.

1903 R. L. Hobson Catal. Eng. Pottery Brit. Mus. 108 Examples of Metropolitan Slip ware, made of red clay, with ornament in white slip and a transparent yellowish lead glaze.

1924 B. Rackham & H. Read Eng. Pottery iii. 28 Another type of ware, showing the same technical methods as the Staffordshire slipwares, has been given the name of ‘Metropolitan’, because it has usually been found in or near London.

1957 C. W. Mankowitz & R. G. Haggar Conc. Encycl. Eng. Pottery & Porcelain 149/1 Metropolitan slipware, the name given to a class of red earthenware decorated with white trailed slip... Examples dated from 1638 to 1659 are recorded.

1967 Times 14 Mar. 21/7 (advt.) A Metropolitan ware silver-mounted jug.

†3. figurative. Principal, chief. Obsolete.Cf. sense A. 1b.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > pre-eminence > [adjective]

firsteOE

headOE

highOE

greatc1350

upperestc1374

chief1377

singular1377

principala1382

royalc1425

cardinal1440

pre-eminenta1460

praisea1475

main1480

maina1525

primary1565

captain1566

arch1574

mistressa1586

capital1597

topless1609

primea1616

metropolitan1635

transeminent1660

whole1675

uppermost1680

primus inter pares1688

topping1694

Sudder1787

par excellence1839

banner1840

primatial1892

1635 T. Jackson Humiliation Sonne of God 234 Of which [feasts] the Passeover was the principall, or (as Chrysostome with some other of the Ancients instile it) Metropolitan.

1645 J. Milton Tetrachordon 64 To acknowledge Gods ancient people their betters, and that language the Metropolitan language.

1651 N. Biggs Matæotechnia Medicinæ Praxeωs ⁋198 The Ascendand and first house, the metrapolitane place in the systeme of indications.

a1652 R. Brome Court Begger ii. i. sig. O5, in Five New Playes (1653) Some call him the metrapolitane wit of Court.

1686 J. Dunton Lett. from New Eng. (1867) 74 Mr. Increase Mather:..He is deservedly called, The Metropolitan Clergy-Man of the Kingdom.

4. Of, relating to, or designating a mother country or parent state in relation to its colonies.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > rule or government > territorial jurisdiction or areas subject to > [adjective] > relating to mother country

metropolitan1806

1806 T. Jefferson Let. 10 July in Writings (1903) XI. 120 A safe carriage of all her productions, metropolitan or colonial.

1830 J. Bentham Official Aptitude Maximized Pref. p. xxi On the question—by the metropolitan country shall this or that distant dependency be kept up,—there are two sides.

1910 Encycl. Brit. X. 795/2 The organization of the ‘metropolitan troops’ [in France] by regiments.

1943 H. Nicolson Diary 4 Feb. (1967) 278 In Metropolitan France de Gaulle is the great symbol.

1958 Optima Mar. 22/1 Were peace to be restored, metropolitan France would have, within the following few years, to devote 2½ per cent. of her national revenue to raising the Algerian standard of living.

1972 Sci. Amer. Apr. 19/3 Back in colonial times the metropolitan countries certainly maintained peace in and among their colonies.

1991 Profession (Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer.) 36/2 Ethnographers have used the term transculturation to describe processes whereby members of subordinated or marginal groups select and invent from materials transmitted by a dominant or metropolitan culture.

Compounds

metropolitan bishop n. = sense A. 1a.

ΘΚΠ

society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > clerical superior > metropolitan > [noun]

metropolitanc1410

metropolite1578

metropolitan bishop1844

1844 Examiner 31 Aug. 547/3 The old metropolitan Bishop of St Petersburg was a learned philologer.

1933 Speculum 1 66 The bishops of Lorraine, not having at the moment a metropolitan bishop since the Archbishopric of Trier was vacant, have commanded him..to exercise his small abilities in their affairs.

1972 D. Dakin Unification of Greece i. 4 Two of the metropolitan bishops of Korinth were in correspondence with Pope Gregory the Great.

metropolitan county n. any county containing a large urban area; spec. any one of the six units of English local government (in existence from 1974 to 1986) centred on the major conurbations outside London.

ΚΠ

1839 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. 2 338 From the first of these tables it appears that the metropolitan county exceeds the average by 61 per cent.

1885 Sat. Rev. 3 Jan. 1/1 There appears to have been a..tendency..to stint the metropolitan counties of their sizings.

1971 Daily Tel. 17 Feb. 9 Six new metropolitan county councils are proposed by the Government in its plans for reorganisation of local government published today.

1988 Parl. Affairs 41 357 Witness Mrs Thatcher's resolve to break accepted practice in all sorts of fields such as the abolition of Metropolitan Counties without a Royal Commission.

metropolitan district n. (a) an area of dense urban occupation; (b) U.S. an administrative district covering one or more counties.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > rule or government > territorial jurisdiction or areas subject to > an administrative division of territory > [noun] > in U.S.A.

hundred1621

town1631

squadron1636

county1662

precinct1713

parish1772

back county1775

district1792

metropolitan district1817

society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > [noun] > other types of town or city

ruin1561

metropolitan district1817

ville lumière1920

Middletown1926

Motopia1959

1817 Lit. Gaz. 15 Feb. 56/1 This improvement..is not unworthy the notice of those metropolitan districts where gas illumination has not yet taken place.

1906 Sinking Funds Metrop. Districts (Commonw. Mass.) 1 The metropolitan districts comprise forty-one cities and towns in the vicinity of and including Boston.

1999 D. K. Hamilton Governing Metrop. Areas v. 181 The term metropolitan district is often used to designate districts that cover one or more counties... One of the most famous metropolitan districts is the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

† metropolitan toe n. Obsolete (in Milton's image of the benefices of a pluralist bishop as the toes on a foot, and allusions to this) the big toe (i.e. the office of a metropolitan).

ΚΠ

1642 J. Milton Apol. Smectymnuus 19 A Bishops foot that hath all his Toes..and a linnen Sock over it, is the aptest emblem of the Prelate himselfe. Who being a pluralist, may under one Surplice which is also linnen, hide foure benefices besides the metropolitan toe.

1673 R. Leigh Transproser Rehears'd 127 When Arch-bishop Abbot was suspended we might say his metropolitan toe was cut off.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

单词	metropolitan
释义	metropolitann.adj. Brit. /ˌmɛtrəˈpɒlᵻt(ə)n/, U.S. /ˌmɛtrəˈpɑlətn/, /ˌmɛtrəˈpɑlədən/ Forms: late Middle English metropolan (transmission error), late Middle English metropollytan, late Middle English metropolytan, late Middle English–1500s metropolitaine, late Middle English–1600s metropolitane, late Middle English– metropolitan, 1500s metrapolytane, 1500s metropolytane, 1500s–1600s metrapolitan, 1500s–1600s metrapolitane; also Scottish pre-1700 methropolitane, pre-1700 metrapolitan, pre-1700 metrapolitane, pre-1700 metrapolitant, pre-1700 metrapulitant, pre-1700 metropolitane, pre-1700 metropolitanne. Origin: A borrowing from Latin. Etymon: Latin metropolitanus. Etymology: < post-classical Latin metropolitanus, adjective and noun (4th cent.) < Hellenistic Greek μητροπολίτης (see metropolite n.) + post-classical Latin -anus -an suffix. Compare Anglo-Norman metropolitan, noun, Old French metropolitain, adjective (1294), Middle French, French métropolitain, adjective and noun (14th cent.).Sense A. 1a is paralleled in post-classical Latin (4th cent.), Anglo-Norman, and Middle French (14th cent.), and sense A. 2 in French (1606). Sense B. 1 is paralleled in post-classical Latin (4th cent.) and Old French, Middle French (1294), sense B. 2a in post-classical Latin (4th cent.) and Middle French (1488), and sense B. 4 in post-classical Latin (4th cent.) and French (1777). The French phrase chemin de fer métropolitain is attested from 1873, probably after English Metropolitan Railway (see sense B. 2c); French métropolitain is recorded from 1874 denoting the Metropolitan Railway of London, and from 1887 denoting the French equivalent. A. n. 1. Christian Church. a. Also with capital initial. A bishop having the oversight of the bishops of a province; spec. an archbishop.In the early Church a metropolitan's see was in the metropolis of the province. In the Western Church, the title ‘Metropolitan’ is now roughly coextensive with ‘Archbishop’; in the Orthodox Church the metropolitan ranks above an archbishop and below a patriarch, though the term is now widely given to diocesan bishops as an honorific title. ΘΚΠ society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > clerical superior > metropolitan > [noun] metropolitanc1410 metropolite1578 metropolitan bishop1844 c1410 tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1879) VII. 87 Elphegus bisshop of Wynchestre, when Ulricus metropolitane of Doverus was dede, was madde erchebisshop. a1475 (a1447) O. Bokenham Mappula Angliae in Englische Studien (1887) 10 25 Nowe yn Englonde byn but ii Metropolitans..& to Caunterbury ben subiecte xiii bysshopryches yn Englonde & iiii yn Walis, But Yoorke haþe but ii vndir hym. 1530–1 Act 22 Hen. VIII c. 15 Wyllyam Archebysshoppe of Canturburye metropolytane and primate of all Englande. 1570 B. Googe tr. T. Kirchmeyer Popish Kingdome iv. 209 For by the same the Bishops haue their full aucthoritie, And Metropolitanes are forced, these dearely for to buie. 1646 H. Hammond View Exceptions to Visct. Falkland's Disc. Infallibilitie 26 It hath beene agreed on, that all that are under the Metropolitan of Canterbury, should be called the Province of Canterbury. a1674 J. Milton Brief Hist. Moscovia (1682) i. 20 The Emperour esteemeth the Metropolitan next to God, after our Lady, and Saint Nicholas, as being his spiritual Officer. 1710 H. Prideaux Orig. & Right Tithes iii. 149 All the Metropolitans and Bishops of King Gontrans Kingdom. 1768 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. III. v. 65 It [sc. the court of peculiars] has a jurisdiction over all those parishes dispersed through the province of Canterbury in the midst of other dioceses, which are exempt from the ordinary's jurisdiction, and subject to the metropolitan only. 1814 R. Southey Roderick xx. 251 If thou wert still The mitred metropolitan. 1833 R. Pinkerton Russia 189 The Council of Moscow..was attended by..five metropolitans, five archbishops [etc.]. 1897 Catholic Dict. (ed. 5) 50/2 At present the terms ‘archbishop’ and ‘metropolitan’ have the same meaning, except that the latter implies the existence of suffragans, whereas there may be archbishops without suffragans, as in the case of Glasgow. 1909 Q. Jrnl. Econ. 23 283 From a very early period the popes exercised the right of confirmation as metropolitans of central Italy. 1970 R. A. H. Robinson Origins of Franco's Spain i. 44 The Metropolitans..told Catholics that they had ‘the strictest duty to take part as actively as possible’ in the elections. 1992 Commentary Feb. 34/2 He in turn conveyed four of these to the Metropolitan of the Syrian Jacobite Church in Jerusalem. †b. In extended (usually ironic) use: a person wielding supreme authority over others. Obsolete. ΚΠ 1582 T. Blenerhasset True Minerva sig. C2 b Quoth Pluto, tell my Metropolitan To no such end he hath his princely place. 1583 B. Melbancke Philotimus (new ed.) sig. H ^v My fathers propose was, whether I woulde..consecrate my selfe to the Court where Venus is Metrapolytane and bears the swaye. 1630 T. Randolph Aristippus in Wks. (1875) 32 The Catholic Bishop of Barbers, the very Metropolitan of Surgeons. 1686 tr. J. Chardin Coronation Solyman 59 in Trav. Persia A new Sadre, or Mahometan Pontiff, or Metropolitan of the whole Empire. 1780 W. Cowper Progress of Error 186 Let Comus rise Archbishop of the land; Let him your rubric and your feasts prescribe, Grand Metropolitan of all the tribe. †2. A chief town, a metropolis. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > [noun] > chief town or capital city headeOE mother-boroughc1225 master-borougha1325 sedea1387 chief1393 master-townc1400 metropolitan?a1439 capital city1439 master citya1450 stade1481 metropolea1500 capital1525 seatc1540 head-place1546 chamber1555 mother city1570 metropolis1584 metropolite1591 madam-town1593 capital town1601 seat-town1601 metropolie1633 megapolis1638 county seat1803 Queen City1807 metrop1888 Metroland1951 a1439 J. Lydgate Fall of Princes (Bodl. 263) iv. 1662 (MED) He [sc. Alexander the Great] sette in Grece the myhti strong cite Of Corynthe, the metropolitan, Ther testablisshe his imperial see. c1550 Complaynt Scotl. (1979) xiii. 87 The toune of tribie quhilk is the methropolitane & capital cite of that cuntre. 1585 T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie ii. ix. 72 b Mytilene..metropolitane of al the townes of Eolea. 1629 J. Gaule Practique Theories Christs Predict. 104 Christ could haue chosen Rome..; or Athens..; or Jerusalem..; And yet poore Nazareth, and little Bethlehem..are..preferred to those renowned Metropolitans. 1692 N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) II. 531 Grenoble, the metropolitane of Dauphigny. 1874 C. H. Spurgeon Treasury of David IV. Ps. lxxxvii. 3 The true ‘eternal city’, the metropolitan, the mother of us all. †3. figurative. = metropolis n. 3b. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > space > relative position > central condition or position > [noun] > position of being in the midst > point which forms centre for its surroundings > centre of activity, operations, etc. metropolis1599 metropolitana1620 focus1796 foyer1799 nerve-knot1832 hub1858 nerve centre1870 storm centre1894 nexus1971 a1620 M. Fotherby Atheomastix (1622) ii. ix. §2. 296 The prime and Metropolitan of the Mathematicall Sciences. 1704 N. N. tr. T. Boccalini Advts. from Parnassus II. 204 That Naples should be allow'd the Title of Metropolitan of all Cities whatever for breaking of Colts, and Rome for managing of Men. 4. A native or inhabitant of a metropolis or large city; a person who has metropolitan ideas, manners, etc. ΘΚΠ society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [noun] > inhabitant of specific types of town or city metropolitan1795 outporter1904 small-towner1910 megalopolitan1930 old-towner1973 1795 A. Hughes Jemima I. 83 You are a Paisley by nature as well as by birth, and incapable of becoming a worthy metropolitan. 1815 J. Jekyll in Bentham's Wks. (1843) X. 486 To so inveterate a metropolitan as myself this is no grievance. 1882 E. O'Donovan Merv Oasis II. liv. 407 The people at Merv considered themselves altogether as metropolitans. 1987 A. Brien Lenin ii. 95 I could not believe that these sophisticated metropolitans, all of them Petersburg graduates, could be so..obtuse. 1996 Independent 20 Aug. ii. 2 (heading) The brave new metropolitans. †5. A citizen of the mother city or parent state of a colony. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [noun] > inhabitant of specific types of town or city > in ancient times municipal1728 metropolitan1846 1846 G. Grote Hist. Greece II. ii. ii. 311 Both metropolitans and colonists styled themselves Hellens, and were recognised as such by each other. 6. Also with capital initial. [Short for Metropolitan line, railway, etc.: see sense B. 2c.] A metropolitan railway system, service, or train; spec. the Metropolitan line of the London Underground. ΚΠ 1934 H. G. Wells Exper. in Autobiogr. II. ix. 817 Moscow also is making an imitative tube system... It will be the least stable ‘Metropolitan’ in the world. 1934 H. G. Wells Exper. in Autobiogr. II. ix. 819 The constructors of the new Metropolitan. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. XI. 500/1 The District owned the south side of the Inner Circle from Mansion House to South Kensington... District trains reached Uxbridge over the Metropolitan. 1987 Motive Power Nov. 22/1 The first eastbound tube train from King's Cross was a Metropolitan to Whitechapel. B. adj. 1. Christian Church. Of or belonging to the see or province of a metropolitan; relating to or characteristic of a metropolitan.metropolitan bishop: see Compounds. ΘΚΠ society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > clerical superior > metropolitan > [adjective] metropolitan1452 metropolitical1541 metropolical1551 metropolitica1555 metropolic1747 1452 in J. B. Sheppard Christ Church Lett. (1877) 17 Our metropolitan churche of Canterbury..stondith nowe destitute of a fader. a1475 (a1447) O. Bokenham Mappula Angliae in Englische Studien (1887) 10 24 (MED) Seynt Austyne..translatyd þe metropolytan see..to Caunterbury. 1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VIII f. ccxlvij The Metrapolitan Churche of Saint Andrewes. a1600 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie vii. viii, in Wks. (1662) 24 Archiepiscopal or Metropolitan prerogatives are those mentioned in old Imperial constitutions,..to convocate the holy Bishops under them within the compass of their own Provinces. 1647 N. Bacon Hist. Disc. Govt. 35 London had the Metropolitane See, or was chiefest in precedency. 1726 J. Ayliffe Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani 91 An Archbishop..was elected by Provincial Bishops meeting together in the Metropolitan Church. 1876 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest V. xxiii. 317 Henry of Winchester pleaded hard..that the ancient capital should be raised to primatial rank, as the metropolitan see of Wessex. 1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 502/2 He held the appointment of canon in the metropolitan church of Florence. 2. a. Of, belonging to, or constituting a metropolis (in early use spec. London). Also: designating a political association of individual cities within an urban agglomeration, as metropolitan Toronto, etc. ΘΚΠ society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > [adjective] > chief town or capital city capital1439 metropolitan1555 metropolic?1575 metropolite1591 metropolitical1595 Metro1957 1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde f. 259 The metrapolitane citie of Moscouia cauled Mosca. 1699 E. Ward London Spy I. iii. 7 A full Prospect of our Metropolitan Maypole. 1785 W. Cowper Task iii. 737 Are not wholesome airs..To be preferred to smoke, to the eclipse That metropolitan volcanoes make? 1864 Act 27 & 28 Vict. c. 116 §8 This Act may be cited..as the ‘Metropolitan Houseless Poor Act, 1864’. 1930 H. Crane Let. 29 Nov. (1965) 359 In one of the many Doubleday-Doran shops in the metropolitan area. 1936 E. Van Cleef Trade Centers & Trade Routes iii. 34 The immediately contiguous territory within the continuous hinterland which in some instances contributes to the formation of the metropolitan city has been termed by the Germans, the ‘Umland’ or country about. 1958 Listener 11 Dec. 981/2 The pattern of ‘metropolitan segregation’ (as it has been called) has opened a new, and a frightening, chapter of the ‘American Dilemma’. 1969 Daily Tel. 12 June 23/2 Three areas—Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool—will become Metropolitan authorities, with the key functions of planning, transportation and development. 1972 Times 12 Feb. 14/8 His Lordship had not failed to observe the practice in some metropolitan courts. 1974 Daily Tel. 1 Apr. 6/4 The 45 new counties will contain 332 districts, including 36 metropolitan districts covering towns in the six metropolitan counties. 1994 N.Y. Times 11 Sept. xiii. 3/3 The large amount of aircraft passing through the metropolitan area. b. Inhabiting a metropolis; characteristic of or influenced by the metropolis, its way of life, etc. In early use frequently in negative sense: †over-sophisticated, sexually promiscuous, corrupt (obsolete). Now usually in positive sense: urbane, sophisticated, excitingly varied, cosmopolitan. ΘΚΠ the world > the earth > named regions of earth > named cities or towns > [adjective] > in Britain > London metropolitan1640 Londonized1832 Londonish1838 cis-pontine1860 Londonesque1862 Londony1884 1640 N. Richards Trag. Messallina iv. sig. E5 Spoake like thy selfe, my metropolitan Cut throate of chastitie. 1673 in J. W. Draper Cent. Broadside Elegies (1928) 119/2 And she grown up to years, acquiring man, Improv'd, till she was Metropolitan. 1740 C. Cibber Apol. Life C. Cibber xiv. 272 A great deal of that false, flashy wit, and forc'd humour, which had been the delight of our metropolitan multitude. 1886 E. L. Bynner Agnes Surriage xv. 173 How fast he was losing metropolitan tone and polish in the wilds of America. 1887 E. Dowden Life Shelley I. vi. 236 Dublin had sunk from a metropolitan to a provincial city. 1902 A. M. Fairbairn Philos. Christian Relig. ii. ii. iii. 487 The Synagogue was provincial and sectarian, but the Temple was metropolitan and collective. 1967 M. L. King Where do we go from Here? (1968) App. 234 The United States is now a metropolitan nation and will become more so. 1984 V. S. Naipaul Finding Centre i. 25 A busy, alert man, deep in the metropolitan excitements of London. c. Of, designating, or relating to an underground railway system or line serving a metropolis; spec. (with capital initial) designating one of the lines of the London Underground, or a train travelling on that line. ΘΚΠ society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [adjective] > types of railway > relating to underground railway metropolitan1858 1858 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. 21 156 (title) Metropolitan Railway terminal accommodation and its effect on traffic results. 1867 A. Trollope Claverings II. xix. 233 He was very keen at the present moment about Metropolitan railways. c1875 ‘Brenda’ Froggy's Little Brother (new ed.) iii. 33 A Metropolitan train was just in, and a crowd of passengers, as usual, came swarming up the steps into the street. 1883 E. W. Hamilton Diary 13 Nov. (1972) II. 505 The proposal of the Metropolitan Railway to run an underground line from the back of the India Office to Knightsbridge, and thence across the Park to the Marble Arch and up the Edgeware Road. 1909 G. K. Chesterton Tremendous Trifles 244 A Metropolitan station, where I took a train home. 1974 M. Birmingham You can help Me ii. 38 The Metropolitan train from Euston Square..[to] Aldgate East. d. Ceramics. Designating a type of lead-glazed, red slipware made in or near London in the 17th and early 18th centuries. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > clay compositions > baked clay > pottery or ceramics > [adjective] > types of English pottery Liverpool1750 Wedgwood1787 Mason1804 Plymouth1816 Rockingham1840 Leeds1863 Jackfield1866 Spode1869 Whieldon1869 Minton1871 Doulton1873 Toft1878 Lambeth1884 Wrotham1884 metropolitan1891 Astbury1904 Pratt1920 Malling1933 1891 J. E. Hodgkin & E. Hodgkin Examples Early Eng. Pottery 6 Of a less decorative character than most of the slip-decorated pieces is the ware which we have classed..as Metropolitan Slip, the pieces in this group having been mainly found in or near London. 1903 R. L. Hobson Catal. Eng. Pottery Brit. Mus. 108 Examples of Metropolitan Slip ware, made of red clay, with ornament in white slip and a transparent yellowish lead glaze. 1924 B. Rackham & H. Read Eng. Pottery iii. 28 Another type of ware, showing the same technical methods as the Staffordshire slipwares, has been given the name of ‘Metropolitan’, because it has usually been found in or near London. 1957 C. W. Mankowitz & R. G. Haggar Conc. Encycl. Eng. Pottery & Porcelain 149/1 Metropolitan slipware, the name given to a class of red earthenware decorated with white trailed slip... Examples dated from 1638 to 1659 are recorded. 1967 Times 14 Mar. 21/7 (advt.) A Metropolitan ware silver-mounted jug. †3. figurative. Principal, chief. Obsolete.Cf. sense A. 1b. ΘΚΠ the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > pre-eminence > [adjective] firsteOE headOE highOE greatc1350 upperestc1374 chief1377 singular1377 principala1382 royalc1425 cardinal1440 pre-eminenta1460 praisea1475 main1480 maina1525 primary1565 captain1566 arch1574 mistressa1586 capital1597 topless1609 primea1616 metropolitan1635 transeminent1660 whole1675 uppermost1680 primus inter pares1688 topping1694 Sudder1787 par excellence1839 banner1840 primatial1892 1635 T. Jackson Humiliation Sonne of God 234 Of which [feasts] the Passeover was the principall, or (as Chrysostome with some other of the Ancients instile it) Metropolitan. 1645 J. Milton Tetrachordon 64 To acknowledge Gods ancient people their betters, and that language the Metropolitan language. 1651 N. Biggs Matæotechnia Medicinæ Praxeωs ⁋198 The Ascendand and first house, the metrapolitane place in the systeme of indications. a1652 R. Brome Court Begger ii. i. sig. O5, in Five New Playes (1653) Some call him the metrapolitane wit of Court. 1686 J. Dunton Lett. from New Eng. (1867) 74 Mr. Increase Mather:..He is deservedly called, The Metropolitan Clergy-Man of the Kingdom. 4. Of, relating to, or designating a mother country or parent state in relation to its colonies. ΘΚΠ society > authority > rule or government > territorial jurisdiction or areas subject to > [adjective] > relating to mother country metropolitan1806 1806 T. Jefferson Let. 10 July in Writings (1903) XI. 120 A safe carriage of all her productions, metropolitan or colonial. 1830 J. Bentham Official Aptitude Maximized Pref. p. xxi On the question—by the metropolitan country shall this or that distant dependency be kept up,—there are two sides. 1910 Encycl. Brit. X. 795/2 The organization of the ‘metropolitan troops’ [in France] by regiments. 1943 H. Nicolson Diary 4 Feb. (1967) 278 In Metropolitan France de Gaulle is the great symbol. 1958 Optima Mar. 22/1 Were peace to be restored, metropolitan France would have, within the following few years, to devote 2½ per cent. of her national revenue to raising the Algerian standard of living. 1972 Sci. Amer. Apr. 19/3 Back in colonial times the metropolitan countries certainly maintained peace in and among their colonies. 1991 Profession (Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer.) 36/2 Ethnographers have used the term transculturation to describe processes whereby members of subordinated or marginal groups select and invent from materials transmitted by a dominant or metropolitan culture. Compounds metropolitan bishop n. = sense A. 1a. ΘΚΠ society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > clerical superior > metropolitan > [noun] metropolitanc1410 metropolite1578 metropolitan bishop1844 1844 Examiner 31 Aug. 547/3 The old metropolitan Bishop of St Petersburg was a learned philologer. 1933 Speculum 1 66 The bishops of Lorraine, not having at the moment a metropolitan bishop since the Archbishopric of Trier was vacant, have commanded him..to exercise his small abilities in their affairs. 1972 D. Dakin Unification of Greece i. 4 Two of the metropolitan bishops of Korinth were in correspondence with Pope Gregory the Great. metropolitan county n. any county containing a large urban area; spec. any one of the six units of English local government (in existence from 1974 to 1986) centred on the major conurbations outside London. ΚΠ 1839 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. 2 338 From the first of these tables it appears that the metropolitan county exceeds the average by 61 per cent. 1885 Sat. Rev. 3 Jan. 1/1 There appears to have been a..tendency..to stint the metropolitan counties of their sizings. 1971 Daily Tel. 17 Feb. 9 Six new metropolitan county councils are proposed by the Government in its plans for reorganisation of local government published today. 1988 Parl. Affairs 41 357 Witness Mrs Thatcher's resolve to break accepted practice in all sorts of fields such as the abolition of Metropolitan Counties without a Royal Commission. metropolitan district n. (a) an area of dense urban occupation; (b) U.S. an administrative district covering one or more counties. ΘΚΠ society > authority > rule or government > territorial jurisdiction or areas subject to > an administrative division of territory > [noun] > in U.S.A. hundred1621 town1631 squadron1636 county1662 precinct1713 parish1772 back county1775 district1792 metropolitan district1817 society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > [noun] > other types of town or city ruin1561 metropolitan district1817 ville lumière1920 Middletown1926 Motopia1959 1817 Lit. Gaz. 15 Feb. 56/1 This improvement..is not unworthy the notice of those metropolitan districts where gas illumination has not yet taken place. 1906 Sinking Funds Metrop. Districts (Commonw. Mass.) 1 The metropolitan districts comprise forty-one cities and towns in the vicinity of and including Boston. 1999 D. K. Hamilton Governing Metrop. Areas v. 181 The term metropolitan district is often used to designate districts that cover one or more counties... One of the most famous metropolitan districts is the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. † metropolitan toe n. Obsolete (in Milton's image of the benefices of a pluralist bishop as the toes on a foot, and allusions to this) the big toe (i.e. the office of a metropolitan). ΚΠ 1642 J. Milton Apol. Smectymnuus 19 A Bishops foot that hath all his Toes..and a linnen Sock over it, is the aptest emblem of the Prelate himselfe. Who being a pluralist, may under one Surplice which is also linnen, hide foure benefices besides the metropolitan toe. 1673 R. Leigh Transproser Rehears'd 127 When Arch-bishop Abbot was suspended we might say his metropolitan toe was cut off. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < n.adj.c1410
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