City

Forms: 3–6 cyte, cite, (3 scite), 4 cety, 4–5 cytee, site, 4–6 citee, cete, 5 cetie, sete, 5–7 citie, 6 cittie, citte, cytte, syttey, sittey; also Sc. ciete, cyete, scitie, 6–7 citty, (7 chitty), 6– city. [ME. cite, a. OF. cité, earlier citet, corresp. to Pr. ciptat, It. città, earlier cittade, Romanic *civ’tade:—L. cīvitāt-em. By another phonetic process the Romanic type gave Pr. and Cat. ciutat, Sp. ciudad, Pg. cidade. L. cīvitās, -tātem was sb. of state or condition f. cīvis citizen: its primary sense was therefore ‘citizenship’; thence concretely ‘the body of citizens, the community’; only in later times was the word taken as = urbs, the town or place occupied by the community. The historical relation between the Roman cīvitās and cīvis was thus the reverse of that between our city and citizen, which however is that of the Gr. πόλις and πολίτης.]

  The name civitas was applied by the Romans to each of the independent states or tribes of Gaul; in later times it adhered to the chief town of each of these states, which usually became afterwards the seat of civil government and of episcopal authority. Though there were civitates in Britain also in Roman times, the word was not adopted by the Angles and Saxons, who applied the name burh to all towns alike. In later times civitas may be found as a Latin equivalent of burh, and, in Domesday, it is frequently applied to the larger and more important byriȝ, burȝes, or boroughs, which were the centers of districts, and had in some cases municipal autonomy, and thus corresponded in character to the cités of France. As an English word, cité is found early in the 13th c., applied, both to foreign, and particularly ancient cities, where it is probably due to translation from Latin or French, and also to important English boroughs, such as London and Lincoln. Under the Norman kings, the episcopal sees, which were formerly often established in villages, began to be removed to the chief borough or ‘city’ of the diocese, as in France; and as the bishops thus went to the cities, there grew up a notion of identification between ‘city’ and ‘cathedral town’; which was confirmed and legally countenanced when, on the establishment of the new bishoprics by Henry VIII., the boroughs in which they were set up were created ‘cities.’ The same title has been conferred on all (or nearly all) the places to which new bishoprics have been assigned in the 19th c. Historians and legal antiquaries have, however, always pointed out that there is no necessary connection of ‘city’ with ‘cathedral town,’ and in recent times the style and rank of ‘city’ have begun to be conferred by royal authority on large and important boroughs which are not episcopal seats, Birmingham being the first so distinguished in England. (See Freeman in Macmillan’s Mag., May 1889.)

  In Scotland, the style of civitas appears to have been introduced from England, after the association of the word with the episcopal seats. Here, it appears to have had no relation to the size, civil importance, or municipal standing of the place, but was freely applied in charters from the time of David I. (12th c.) to every bishop’s seat, even when a mere hamlet; it was only at much later dates that some of these civitates attained sufficient importance to be raised to the rank of burghs, while others remained villages. In later times, perh. not before the Reformation, civitas is found applied to Perth and Edinburgh, which were not episcopal seats, but ancient royal burghs, and seats of royalty. The vernacular form ‘city’ is found in the 15th c. applied to some of the burghs which were civitates, and it gradually came to be commonly used of certain of the larger of these, notably Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth and Aberdeen. In this sense, the royal burgh of Dundee was also created a ‘city’ by Royal Charter in 1889. Some of the other burghs which were formerly bishop’s seats, or can show civitas in their early charters, have in recent times claimed or assumed the style of ‘city,’ though not generally so regarded.

  The history of the word in Ireland is somewhat parallel. Probably all or most of the places having bishops have been styled on some occasion civitas; but some of these are mere hamlets, and the term ‘city’ is currently applied only to a few of them which are ancient and important boroughs. Thom’s Directory applies it to Dublin, Cork, Londonderry, Limerick (‘City of the violated treaty’), Kilkenny and Waterford; also to Armagh and Cashel, but not to Tuam or Galway (though the latter is often called ‘the City of the Tribes’). Belfast was, in 1888, created a ‘city’ by Royal Letters Patent.

  In other lands now or formerly under British rule, ‘city’ is used sometimes more loosely, but often with more exact legal definition than in England. In North America it usually connotes municipal autonomy or organization of a more complete or higher kind than ‘town.’ See 2 d, e. In India it is applied titularly to the three Presidency capitals, and to all great towns of historic importance or note, as the seats of dynasties, etc., e.g., Benares, Delhi, Agra, Lucknow, Indore, Peshawur, etc.

  The distinction is unknown to other Teutonic and (now) also to Romanic languages: Ger. stadt, F. ville, It. citta, Sp. ciudade, etc., translate both town and city.

  I.  † 1. orig. A town or other inhabited place. Not a native designation, but app. at first a somewhat grandiose title, used instead of the OE. burh, BOROUGH. Frequently applied (after civitas of the Vulgate = πόλις of N. T. & LXX.) to places mentioned in the Bible which were really mere villages, e.g., Nazareth, Naim, Bethlehem; here, as a literalism of translation, it still stands in Bible versions.

  The earlier Wyclifite version had regularly burȝ toun, borow toun; for this the later version (Purvey’s) substituted citee. Only in Esther ix. 19 do we find borow townes, and in Gen. xiii. 12 townes retained.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 228. Þe tur nis nout asailed, ne þe castel, ne þe cite hwon heo beoð biwunnen.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 2669. Memphin ðat riche cite.

c. 1250.  Kentish Serm., in O. E. Misc., 26. Þe cite of bethleem.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter xvi. 12. Fforthkastand me out of þe cite.

1388.  Wyclif, Deut. xii. 21. Thou schalt ete in thi citees [1382 burȝtouns]. Ibid., Joshua, vii. 2. The citee [1382 burȝtown] Bethel.

1535.  Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 293. All the laif that duelt into that schire, With euerie scitie that wes neir besyde.

1611.  Bible, Luke vii. 11. He went into a citie called Naim.

  2.  spec. A title ranking above that of ‘town.’ a. used vaguely, or of ancient or foreign places of note, as capitals, or the like.

c. 1380.  Sir Ferumb., 283. Be it castel, burgh, outher Cite.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIV. ii. (1495), 486. The erthe is aournyd wyth so many grete cytees and borughes.

c. 1440.  Gesta Rom., xxv. 93 (Harl. MS.). Plebeius was Emperoure Regning in the cete of Rome.

1481.  Caxton, Myrr., II. iv. 68. An yle named Probane wherin ben founded ten cytees and plente of other townes.

1535.  Coverdale, Hab. ii. 12. Wo vnto him, y^t buyldeth y^e towne with bloude, and maynteneth y^e cite with vnrightuousnes [so Bps.’ Bible and 1611; Wyclif citee … cytee].

1555.  Fardle Facions, Pref. 10. Of Tounes, thei made cities, and of villages, Tounes.

1568.  Bible (Bishops’), 1 Sam. xxvii. 5. Let them geue me a place in some towne in the countrey … for why shoulde thy seruant dwel in the head citie of the kingdome.

1591.  Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., III. iii. 45. Look on fertile France, And see the Cities and the Townes defac’t.

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 69. The delightsome pleasures of Rome-citie.

1709.  Berkeley, Ess. Vision, § 109. Many houses go to the making of one city.

1777.  Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1778), II. V. 50. They saw a lake, resembling the sea in extent, encompassed with large towns, and discovered the capital city [Mexico] rising upon an island in the middle.

1844.  Kinglake, Eöthen, xviii. 277. Cairo and Plague! During the whole time of my stay, the Plague was so master of the city.

1860.  Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., II. 302. A city in size and social advantages; quite so, indeed, if eighty thousand people make a city.

1871.  Ruskin, Munera Pulv. (1880), Pref. 8. The city of Paris … supposed itself … infinitely richer.

  b.  In England (see the historical sketch above).

  The title appears to be properly relative to ‘town,’ not to ‘borough.’ ‘Cities’ and ‘towns,’ possessing a municipal corporation and local autonomy, are alike ‘boroughs,’ though those boroughs which are also cities may take precedence of those which are not.

c. 1300.  Beket, 1129. He wende fram Gra[nt]ham; fyve and tuenti myle also To the cite of Lincolne.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. Prol. 160. I haue ysein segges, quod he, in þe cite of london Beren biȝes ful briȝte. Ibid. (1393), C. I. 177. Ich haue yseie grete syres in Cytees and in tounes.

1389.  in Eng. Gilds (1870), 27. A bretherhode of barbres in þe site of Norwyche.

1473.  Warkw., Chron., 2. And graunted to many cyteis and tounes new fraunschesses.

1552–3.  Inv. Ch. Goods Staffs., in Ann. Lichfield, IV. 68. Solde by the bayles and cominalte of the sayd syttey of Lychefeld.

1641.  Termes de la Ley, 60. That place is commonly called Civitas, which hath a Bishop. Yet Master Crompton in his Jurisdictions, where he reckoneth up all the Cities, leaveth out Elie, although it hath a Bishop and a Cathedral Church, and putteth in Westminster, notwithstanding that now it hath no Bishop.

1714.  Fortescue-Aland, Fortescue’s Abs. & Lim. Mon., 65, note. My Lord Coke’s Observation, that every City is, or was, a Bishop’s See, is not very exact; for Leicester which is called there a City, never had a Bishop; nor had Gloucester at that time any Bishop, tho’ it is called a City in Domesday-book.

1889.  Freeman, in Macm. Mag., May, 29. A little time back … Birmingham and Dundee, hitherto merely boroughs, were raised to the rank of cities. Ibid., 30. A city does not seem to have any rights or powers as a city which are not equally shared by every corporate town.

  c.  In Scotland and Ireland (see the historical sketch above).

1454.  (18 Dec.) Munimenta Fr. Pred. de Glasgu., 32. (Maitl. Cl.), 176. Johne Steuart, the first provest that wes in the Cite of Glasgow.

1477.  (27 Jan.) Reg. Episc. Glasg., No. 453. Hed Court of the Burgh and Cite of Glasgow.

1581.  Acts Parl. Sc., 29 Nov. cap. 60 (18[?]), III. 239. The provest, baillies, counsall, and communitie of the cietie of Sanctandrois. Ibid., 24 Oct., 121 Jas. VI. (1597). Barronnes alsweil within Regalitie as Royaltie, and their Baillies to Landwart, and the Provestes and Baillies of all Burrowes and Cities.

1814.  Scott, Waverley, xxxix. He approached the ancient palace of Holyrood, without having entered the walls of the city. Ibid. (1828), F. M. Perth, i. The city was often the residence of our monarchs … although they had no palace at Perth. Ibid., vii. The citizens of the town, or, as they loved better to call it, the Fair City of Perth.

1840.  Lever, H. Lorrequer, i. We were dined by the citizens of Cork … a harder drinking, set of gentlemen no city need boast.

1884.  Gladstone, in Standard, 29 Feb., 2/4. These works were within the precincts of the city of Glasgow.

1889.  Crown Charter, Dundee. We … ordain … that our said Burgh of Dundee shall henceforth and forever hereafter be a City, and shall be called and styled the City of Dundee, and shall have all such rank, liberties, privileges, and immunities as are incident to a City. Ibid., Resol. of Town Council Dundee, 5. That the Chief Magistrate of the City shall hereafter resume and assume the style and title of Lord Provost.

  d.  in U.S.: ‘A town or collective body of inhabitants incorporated and governed by a mayor and aldermen’ (Webster); but applied, in the newer States, much more loosely (see quots.), and often given in anticipation.

  The legal characteristics of a city vary in different states. In some, e.g., Iowa, there are ‘cities of the first class’ with above 15,000 inhabitants, ‘cities of the second class’ with above 2,000, and ‘incorporated towns,’ differing respectively in the complexity of their municipal organization, division into wards, and extent of municipal powers.

1843.  Marryat, M. Violet, xxxii. It is strange that the name of city should be given to an unfinished log-house, but such is the case in Texas! every individual possessing three hundred acres of land, calls his lot a city.

1867.  Dixon, New Amer., I. 36. In a couple of hours … we are at Junction City; a city of six wooden shanties where we alight. Ibid., xi. 125. At the head of these rolling prairies stands Denver, City of the Plains. A few months ago (time runs swiftly in these western towns) Denver was a wifeless city.

1882.  Freeman, in Longm. Mag., I. 89. In America a ‘city’ means what we should call a corporate town or municipal borough.

1873.  G. A. Lawrence, Silverland, 68 (Hoppe). We reached Alta City—all mining camps are ‘cities’ hereabouts.

1887.  J. Macy (Iowa), Our Government, 51. The characteristic officers of a city are a mayor, councilmen, police judges, and a marshall.

Mod.  On a visit to New York city.

  e.  In the dominion of Canada: a municipality of the highest class.

  Variously used in different provinces. In Ontario, a village, on its population exceeding 2,000, has a right to be made a ‘town,’ with Mayor and Councillors; a town, on reaching 15,000, has a right to be erected into a ‘city,’ whereby it is separated from the jurisdiction of the County Council, and has a Mayor and Aldermen (instead of Councillors); but towns of smaller population have also been erected into cities, by special acts of the legislature. In Quebec ‘town’ (= F. ville) is the normal title for a place with municipal autonomy, but six places have been incorporated by the legislature as ‘cities,’ and have Aldermen, in addition to their Mayor and Councillors. In New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the term appears to be titular, and conferred by special charter. In Manitoba it does not exist, ‘town’ (= F. ville) being alone recognized. In British Columbia, on the other hand, there are no ‘towns,’ only ‘city’ and ‘township or district’ being legally recognized, the former having a Mayor, the latter a Reeve.

1876.  Statutes of Quebec 38 Vict., c. 76 § 5. There shall be elected … four competent persons who shall be called … aldermen of the city of Three Rivers.

1881.  Stat. Br. Columbia c. 16 § 10. In every municipality being a city a Mayor shall be elected, and in every municipality being a township or district a Reeve shall be elected.

1887.  Revised Stat. of Ontario c. 184. § 19. In case it appears by the census returns … that a town contains over 15,000 inhabitants, the town may be erected into a city. Ibid., § 68. The council of every city shall consist of the Mayor … and three aldermen for every ward.

  f.  City of Refuge, in the Mosaic dispensation, a walled town set apart for the protection of those who had accidentally committed manslaughter. Holy City, Jerusalem, esp. in connection with pilgrims and crusaders. Eternal City, City of the Seven Hills, Rome: so with many similar epithets, for which see their alphabetical places.

1382.  Wyclif, Matt. xxvii. 53. Thei … camen in to the holy citee. Ibid. (1388), Joshua xxi. 13. Ebron, a citee of refuyt [1382 fliȝt].

c. 1400.  Maundev., vii. 73. For to speke of Jerusalem, the Holy Cytee … it stont full faire betwene Hilles.

1611.  Bible, Joshua xx. 2. Appoint out for you cities of refuge.

1825.  J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, I. 286. Leave the man-slayer no city of refuge.

1844.  Kinglake, Eöthen, xvi. 216. The Pilgrims … make their way as well as they can to the Holy City.

  3.  a. transf. and fig. from 1 and 2.

c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 6275. Thou, hooly chirche, thou maist be wailed! Sith that thy citee is assayled.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 138. The capitaynes and knyghtes by whose dylygence grace byldeth & holdeth these citees in mannes soule.

1597.  Shaks., Lover’s Compl., 176. Long upon these terms I held my city Till thus he gan besiege me.

1843.  Marryat, M. Violet, xi. The [prairie] dogs never locate their towns or cities except where it [grass] grows in abundance.

1860.  Farrar, Orig. Lang., i. 19. The canoe of the savage has grown into the floating city of modern nations.

  b.  Often applied to Paradise or the dwelling of God and the beatified, as in Celestial City, Heavenly City, Holy City, City of God, the last (civitas Dei) being also the title of a famous work of St. Augustine describing ‘an ideal city in the heavens.’

1382.  Wyclif, Ps. xlvi. 4 [xlv. 5]. The bure of the flod gladith the cite of God. Ibid., Rev. xxi. 2. The holy citee Jerusalem, newe, comynge doun fro heuen of God.

1610.  Healey (title), St. Augustine of the City of God.

1665.  Bunyan (title), Holy City, or New Jerusalem. Ibid. (1678), Pilgr., I. 122. Now the way to the Cœlestial City lyes just thorow this Town [of Vanity], where this lusty Fair is kept.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 186. Such an ideal of a city in the heavens has always hovered over the Christian world, and is embodied in St. Augustine’s ‘De Civitate Dei.’

  4.  The community of the inhabitants of a city.

1382.  Wyclif, 1 Sam. iv. 13. That man after that he is goon yn, toolde to the cytee, and al the citee ȝellide.

c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon (1885), 136. Whan the cyle vnderstode this, she began to be sore moeved.

1513.  More, Edw. V. (1641), 135. To frame the Citty to their appetite.

  5.  The City: short for the City of London, that part of London situated within the ancient boundaries, including the liberties, or the districts into which the municipal franchises and privileges extend, which is under the jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor and Corporation. Also the corporation and citizens.

1556.  Chron. Gr. Friars (1852), 14. Prestes, freeres, and other sage men of the cytte.

1593.  Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., I. i. 67. Know you not the Citie fauours them?

1660.  Evelyn, Diary, 10 Feb. Now were the Gates of the Citty broken down by General Monke which exceedingly exasperated the Citty.

1722.  De Foe, Plague (1754), 7. There died but three, of which not one within the whole City or Liberties.

1839.  Penny Cycl., XIV. 110. London, in the large sense of the term, comprehends the City of London, within and without the walls, the city of Westminster, the borough of Southwark, and the newly-created parliamentary boroughs of Finsbury, St. Mary-le-bone, the Tower Hamlets, and Lambeth.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 351. The City is no longer regarded by the wealthiest traders with that attachment which every man naturally feels for his home…. Lombard Street and Threadneedle Street are merely places where men toil and accumulate. They go elsewhere to enjoy and to expend.

1884.  B. Scott, Lond. Roll Fame, 11. Within a few months he received the Freedom of the City.

  b.  More particularly, the business part of this, in the neighborhood of the Exchange and Bank of England, the center of financial and commercial activity. Hence, the commercial and business community here located.

1751.  Smollett, Per. Pic., xcvii. An order for thirty pounds upon the what-d’ye-call’em in the city.

1823.  Lamb, Elia, i. Blind to the deadness of things (as they call them in the city).

1865.  Bright, Sp. on Canada, 13 March (1868), 67. It is said that ‘the City’ joins in this feeling…. Well, I never knew the City to be right.

c. 1875.  ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ Wooin’ o’t, xxxiv. Garret and Oldham are going to smash…. They are something in the City, are they not?

  6.  As the equivalent of Gr. πόλις, L. civitas, in the original sense of a self-governing city or state with its dependencies.

1540–1.  Elyot, Image Gou., 44. Aristotle, in definyng, what is a Citee, doeth not call it a place builded with houses, and enuironed with wals, but saieth that it is a companie, whiche hath sufficiencie of liuyng, and is constitute or assembled to the entent to liue well.

1607.  Shaks., Cor., III. i. 199. What is the Citie, but the People? True, the People are the Citie.

1651.  Hobbes, Govt. & Soc., v. § 9. Union thus made is called a City, or Civill Society, and also a civill Person.

1751.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v., City, in speaking of antiquity, signifies a state, or people, with all its dependencies constituting a particular republic.—Such as are, still, several Cities of the empire, and the Swiss cantons.

1781.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., xvii. II. 69. The Ædui, one of the most powerful and civilized tribes or cities of Gaul.

1847.  Grote, Greece, II. ix. (1849), III. 31. The restoration of a government of personal will in place of that systematic arrangement known as the City.

1873.  Morley, Rousseau, II. 101. We seem to be reading over again the history of a Greek city.

  II.  Attrib. and Comb. (Frequently with special reference to London.)

  7.  attrib. Of, belonging, or pertaining to a city or the City. (Often hyphened, as in next.)

c. 1300.  K. Alis., 7543. They rideth dale and doune, That heo syghen a cite towne.

1389.  in Eng. Gilds (1870), 7. W^t oute þe cite townes ende.

1607.  Shaks., Cor., I. x. 31. I am attended at the Cyprus groue … ’Tis South the City Mils. Ibid., Timon, III. vi. 75. Make not a Citie Feast of it.

c. 1611.  2nd Maiden’s Trag., IV. iii. in Hazl., Dodsley, X. 449. A great city-pie brought to a table.

1644.  Bulwer, Chiron., 105. The Citie-people accustomed also to approve the gesture of the Player, answered him with a certaine measure and artificiall applause.

1649.  G. Daniel, Trinarch. Hen. V., cclxiv. While Cittie-Liveries … resolve it to their Cost.

a. 1704.  T. Brown, Pleasant Ep., Wks. 1730, I. 111. Confirm our City-youth in the true principles of their ancestors.

1725.  Swift, Drapier’s Lett., v. Let me have … good city security against this pestilent coinage.

1728.  Pope, Dunc., I. 96. What City Swans once sung within the walls.

1787.  Sir J. Hawkins, Life Johnson, Wks. I. 434. To this person, as to a city-friend, Mr. Garrick held himself obliged.

1836–9.  Dickens, Sk. Boz, Lond. Recreations. The regular city man, who leaves Lloyd’s at five o’clock, and drives home to Hackney, Clapton, Stamford Hill, or elsewhere.

1847.  Tennyson, Princess, Concl. 101. The city-roar that hails Premier or king! Ibid. (1864), Sea Dreams, 5. Her clear germander eye Droopt in the giant-factoried city-gloom.

1875.  ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ Wooin’ o’t, xxxiv. The Bank rate is a sort of index to the state of City affairs.

  8.  General comb. a. attributive, as city-bounds, -clerk, † -colony, -community, -cross, -dame, -gate, -government, -knight, -moat, -soldier, -solicitor, -wall, -way, -woman, work; b. objective, as city-builder, -burner, -founder, -razer; c. instr. and locative, as city-born, -bound, -bred, -crested, -dubbed, -planted, adjs.

1598.  Grenewey, Tacitus’ Ann., I. viii. (1622), 14. A multitude of *citie-borne bondmen, and after made free.

1866.  E. Yates, Land at Last, II. 113 (Hoppe). *City-bound clerks.

1735.  Thomson, Liberty, I. 213. Within the *City-bounds the desert see.

1885.  L’pool Daily Post, 30 June, 4/6. A city-bred child, brought up in narrow, dingy streets and courts.

1818.  Scott, Hrt. Midl., xviii. ‘If this other wench,’ said the *city-clerk, ‘can speak to her sister.’

1864.  Tennyson, Sea Dreams, 1. A city clerk, but gently born and bred.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, I. 413. As men go to the *city-colony erected by Sylla.

1848.  Mill, Pol. Econ., Prel. Remarks (1876), 10. The whole of these *city-communities were either conquerors or conquered.

1598.  Marston, Pygmal., Sat. X. 125. The subtile *Citty-dame.

1636.  Massinger, Bashful Lover, IV. i. Five-hundred *City-dubbed Madams.

1610.  Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, 542. The humanists cannot agree about the first *City-founder.

1591.  Shaks., Two Gent., III. i. 252. Come, Ile conuey thee through the *City-gate.

1656.  J. Harrington, Oceana (1771), 158 (Jod.). This alteration of *city-government.

1701.  De Foe, True-born Engl., I. 364. Innumerable *City-knights we know.

1761.  Colman & Garrick, Clandestine Marr., I. ii. (Hoppe). I have no patience with the pride of your city knight’s ladies.

1756–7.  trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), IV. 295. The dutchess’s garden lies near the *city-moat.

1787.  Sir J. Hawkins, Life Johnson, Wks. I. 433. Mr. Paterson, the *city-solicitor.

1712.  Steele, Spect., No. 428, ¶ 1. Every great shop within the *City-walls.

1850.  Mrs. Browning, My Doves, xi. To move Along the *city-ways.

1600.  Shaks., A. Y. L., II. vii. 75. The *City woman beares The cost of Princes on vnworthy shoulders.

  9.  Special comb., as city-arab (see ARAB 3); City-article, the editorial article or summary of financial and commercial news in a London (or other) newspaper; city-avens, book-name for the plant Geum urbanum; City Company, one of the corporations that historically represent the ancient trade guilds of London: see COMPANY; City-commissioners, officials who superintend the sewerage of the City; city-court, a judicial court held in a city by the city magistrates; in U.S. the municipal court of a city, consisting of the mayor or recorder and aldermen (Webster); City-editor, the editor of the City article and City news in a journal; city-father (poet.), civic ruler; † city-man, a citizen; a man of the (same) city (cf. townsman); city-mission, a religious and benevolent mission to the poor and abandoned classes of great cities; so city-missionary; † city-poet, a poet appointed by the citizens of London (see quots.); city-marshal, -remembrancer, -ward, etc.: see MARSHAL, REMEMBRANCER, WARD, etc.

1884.  J. E. Taylor, Sagacity & Morality Plants, 181. The *city Arabs who sell fusees in the streets.

c. 1300.  K. Alis., 1618. The *cite-men weoren wel wyght.

1662.  Fuller, Worthies, Devon, 271. Being intimate with his City-man … Baldwin of Devonshire.

1632.  Massinger, City Madam, IV. ii. (1658), 56. The *Citie-Marshall!… And the Sheriff. I know him.

1714.  Lond. Gaz., No. 5261/3. The two City Marshals on Horseback, with their Men on Foot to make Way.

1851.  Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 318/1 (Hoppe). The *‘City Mission’ … might be made productive of real and extensive good. Ibid., I. 21/2. They respect the *City Missionaries, because they read to them.

1728.  Pope, Dunc., I. 88, note. The Pageants … being … at length abolish’d, the employment of *City-Poet ceas’d.

1779–81.  Johnson, L. P., Dryden, Wks. II. 348. Settle was … made the city poet, whose annual office was to describe the glories of the Mayor’s day. Of these bards he was the last.

  Hence nonce-wds. Citycism, city manners, etc.; Citydom, a domain or state constituted by a city; Cityish, smacking of the city; Cityness, city quality; Cityship, a city with its territory; cf. township.

1599.  B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., V. iv. Transform’d from his original Citycism.

1862.  R. Patterson, Ess. Hist. & Art, 460. The early Aryans … resembled the Hellenic race … in being split up into a number of small States or citydoms.

1881.  Mrs. Riddell, Palace Gardens, xxi. 194. Delightful people … not cityish or snobbish.

1662.  Fuller, Worthies, Devon (1811), I. 290 (D.). They take exception at the very Title thereof, ‘Ecclesiastical Politic,’ as if unequally yoked; Church with some mixture of Citynesse.

1870.  R. Black, trans. Guizot’s Hist. France (1872), I. v. 77. Lugdunum … became … the favourite cityship and ordinary abiding-place of the emperors when they visited Gaul.