a. and sb. [ad. L. suburbānus, f. sub SUB- 11 + urbs city: see -AN. Cf. F. suburbain, It., Sp., Pg. suburbano.] A. adj.
1. Of or belonging to a suburb or the suburbs of a town; living, situated, operating, or carried on in the suburbs.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Faithf. Friends, II. ii. To yield At first encounter may befit the state Of some suburbane strumpet, but not her.
1631. Brathwait, Whimzies, Apparator, 131. A pestilent headpeece hee ha ’s to blow up suburbane traders: with whom hee trucks.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal (1673), 18/2. The Rich had stately Monuments on the sides of the publick ways in their own suburbane fields.
1671. Milton, P. R., IV. 243. Athens … native to famous wits Or hospitable, in her sweet recess, City or Suburban, studious walks and shades.
1751. T. Edwards, in Richardson’s Corr. (1804), III. 19. I will hope that … the air of your agreeable suburbane North-End, will restore you.
1781. Cowper, Retirement, 481. Suburban villas, highway-side retreats, That dread th’ encroachment of our growing streets.
1824. Loudon, Encycl. Gard. (ed. 2), § 7285. The suburban villa … is of limited extent, but contains a small kitchen-garden and stables…. Such villas are occupied more by professional men and artists.
1837. Lockhart, Scott, I. iv. 120. His chosen intimate … continued to be … Mr. John Irving—his suburban walks with whom have been recollected so tenderly.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 351. They reside … at suburban country seats surrounded by shrubberies and flower gardens. Ibid. (1855), xviii. IV. 243. Among the suburban residences of our kings, that which stood at Greenwich had long held a distinguished place.
1883. Law Times, LXXV. 130/2. The speculative builder … has become the post of suburban London.
2. transf. Having characteristics that are regarded as belonging especially to life in the suburbs of a city; having the inferior manners, the narrowness of view, etc., attributed to residents in suburbs.
1817. Byron, Beppo, lxvi. A fifth’s look’s vulgar, dowdyish, and suburban.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, Worship, Wks. (Bohn), II. 403. If you follow the suburban fashion in building a sumptuous-looking house for a little money, it will appear to all eyes as a cheap dear house.
3. = SUBURBICARIAN. rare.
1858. J. Martineau, Stud. Chr., 204. Two names are given in…, those of Hyppolytus, a suburban clergyman, and of Caius, whose charge lay within the city itself.
B. sb.
† 1. sb. pl. Suburbs. Obs.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter Cant. 520. Þe suburbanys of gomor.
2. a. A suburban residence. b. A resident in the suburbs.
1856. Newman, Callista, xxii. 195. Can truth give me a handsome suburban with some five hundred slaves.
1906. Westm. Gaz., 1 Sept., 3/1. All good suburbans congratulate themselves on the choice of their abode.
Hence Suburbandom, -hood, suburban conditions of life, the residents of the suburbs collectively; Suburbanism, the characteristics of suburban life; a suburban peculiarity; Suburbanite, a resident in the suburbs; Suburbanity, the condition of being suburban; an instance of this, a suburban characteristic, feature, locality; Suburbanize v. trans., to render suburban.
1902. Speaker, 13 Dec., 284/1. A condition of life differing from the genteelness and respectabilities of mere *suburbandom.
1879. Macm. Mag., XLI. 188/1. There is … another side to this story, which the *suburbanhood of Manchester would like greatly to tell.
1888. Mrs. H. Ward, Robt. Elsmere, II. xi. A county [sc. Surrey], which is throughout a strange mixture of *suburbanism and the desert.
1907. Sat. Rev., 6 April, 423/1. She, like her husband, is a symbol of middle-aged suburbanism rejuvenated and illuminated by fresh experience.
1911. Tyrrell, in 19th Cent., April, 693. There seem to have been suburbanisms and provincialisms, like the Praenestine vulgarism … of dropping the first syllable of a word.
1890. Advance (Chicago), 20 Feb. Much dissatisfaction among *suburbanites over the proposed change.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 9 Nov., 7/2. The Lord Mayor’s Show brings out the suburbanite in full force.
1623. Cockeram, Neighbourhood in the Subburbs, *Suburbannitie.
1833. New Monthly Mag., XXXVII. 50. The pipe he smoked of an evening, under certain circumstances of suburbanity.
1848. Illustr. Lond. News, 17 June, 387/1. Erith is the prettiest of pretty suburbanities.
1884. Spectator, 4 Oct., 1320/2. Suburbanity, with its combined characteristics of money, scandal, and church going.
1893. C. E. Norton, in Lowell’s Lett. (1894), I. 2. The whole district, though so near the city, was not yet *suburbanized.
1901. Daily Chron., 13 May, 5/2. The district is … becoming suburbanised and unfit for sport.
