townspeoplen.
/ˈtaʊnzˌpiːpl/, U.S. /ˈtaʊnzˌpipəl/ 1. The people or inhabitants of a town or other urban area, esp. as opposed to the countryside; townsfolk; town dwellers. Occasionally with singular agreement.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [noun] > collectively
borough-folkc1200
borough-werenc1275
burgh-werec1275
cityc1300
town folkc1325
towna1382
commonity1456
nation1523
portery1565
town1582
townspeople1587
civility1598
municipality1790
citizenry1795
citizenhood1851
burgherage1858
burgherdom1884
burgherhood1885
1587 A. Fleming et al. Holinshed's Chron. (new ed.) III. Contin. 1377/1 The children of the townes people being manie in number were forced to be taught in the grammar schooles far distant from Sandwich.
1648 O. Cromwell Let. 25 Nov. in Lett. & Speeches (1855) II. 460 Without money the stubborn Towns-people will not trust them for the worth of a penny.
1691 in Somerset & Dorset Notes & Queries (1905) June 263 Many died as also many Townes people of ye same distemper.
1745 West-India Monthly Packet of Intelligence Nov. The Garrison of the Castle..by the Assistance of the Towns-people, obtained 20 black Cattle, a Quantity of Bread, Ale, and Water from the Reservoir.
1775 Jrnl. 17 Oct. in A. J. Wahll Voy. of Canceaux (2003) 313 3 of the Towns People came on board in a shore boat.
1834 F. Marryat Peter Simple II. ii. 23 We had no parole, and but little communication with the townspeople.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. v. 573 The town's people repaired to the cliffs and gazed long and anxiously.
1872 W. Bagehot Physics & Politics iv. 132 The place was crowded and a whole townspeople looking on.
1923 National Geographic Mag. Jan. 71/1 She is very often laughed at and scorned by the townspeople and called a country cousin.
1953 J. B. Sellers Hist. Univ. Alabama I. 247 Drinking accounted for at least nine-tenths of the trouble between the University and the townspeople.
2002 D. Goleman et al. Business: Ultimate Resource 1678/2 In 1946 the rural population outnumbered townspeople by two to one; by 1996 the position was reversed.
2. Inhabitants of the same town; (usually with possessive adjective) the inhabitants of one's own town.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > inhabitant according to environment > town- or city-dweller > [noun] > fellow townsman > collectively
townspeople1696
homefolk1856
1696 Arraignm., Tryals & Condemnations C. Cranburne & R. Lowick 59 You say you are Towns-People, and have been long acquainted.
1704 Boston News-let. 12 June 2/1 Our Towns People performed very industriously.
1738 F. Moore Trav. Inland Parts Afr. 192 One of the Men..complained to the Alcade and the rest of his Towns-People.
1823 Examiner 761/1 They are townspeople, we believe, the native place of both being..Edinburgh.
1841 R. W. Emerson Thoughts on Art in Dial Jan. 373 Not by his friends or his townspeople or his contemporaries.
1965 Ebony May 17/1 The efforts of Mayor Clyde Foster and his townspeople to move Triana from nineteenth century into the Space Age.
1988 J. E. Zucchi Italians in Toronto (1990) 8 Because the migrant's livelihood depended so much on the migration traditions of his hometown, he continued to identify with his townspeople upon his arrival in the new world.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1587