suburb
/ˈsʌbəːb
/noun
An outlying district of a city, especially a residential one: a highly respectable suburb of Chicago a working-class suburb life is much better in the suburbs...
- The subjects come from a variety of backgrounds, from inner city ghettoes to upmarket suburbs.
- It raises the aspirations of its pupils, both in the leafy suburbs and the inner city.
- A good place to start is in San Angel, one of the city's most charming suburbs.
Synonyms
outlying district, residential area, dormitory area/town, commuter belt, conurbation;
suburbia, fringes, outskirts, purlieus;
British garden suburb;
North American bedroom area;
US boomburb;
French faubourg, banlieue;
Spanish barrio
rare exurb
Origin
Middle English: from Old French suburbe or Latin suburbium, from sub- 'near to' + urbs, urb- 'city'.
urbane from mid 16th century:
This word was first used in the sense ‘urban’; it comes from Latin urbanus ‘belonging to the city’, from urbs ‘city’, the source of urban (early 17th century) and conurbation (early 20th century). Suburban appears in the early 17th century used literally for ‘relating to a suburb’ (an LME word meaning ‘outside the city’). The disparaging sense appears in 1817 with Byron's ‘vulgar, dowdyish, and suburban’.