a. and sb. [ad. L. urbān-us (whence It., Sp., Pg. urbano), f. urb-s city. Rare before the 19th cent.; cf. next.]
A. adj. 1. Pertaining to or characteristic of, occurring or taking place in, a city or town.
1619. A. Garden, Bp. Elphinston (Hunt. Cl.), 2239. Vrban and tunishe [= townish] turns, Or for the land’s effairs,… his wit Him fit for all declairs.
c. 1770. Erskine, in Encycl. Brit., II. 912. Predial servitudes are divided into rural servitudes, or of lands; and urban servitudes, or of houses.
1821. Lamb, Elia, I. Valentine’s Day. I include all urban and all rural sounds.
1845. R. W. Hamilton, Pop. Educ., iii. 42. It is contended that urban labour is engrossing, unhealthy, and demoralising.
1867. W. L. Newman, in Quest. Reformed Parl., 121. The progressive forces of urban and agricultural life.
1877. Gladstone, Glean. (1879), I. 157. We … are apt to say that the influence of money … is a considerable element in the strength of urban Toryism.
b. Constituting, forming, or including a city, town, or burgh, or part of such.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., II. 309. One uniform system of municipal government, embracing all districts, rural as well as urban.
1867. A. O. Rutson, Ess. Reform, 297. The activity of mind and the zeal for improvement which belong to urban constituencies.
1872. Act 35–36 Vict., c. 79 § 3. Such urban and rural sanitary districts.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. lxi. 433. A ‘town’ in New England … is a rural and not an urban area.
1894. Act 56–57 Vict., c. 73 § 21. Urban sanitary authorities shall be called urban district councils, and their districts shall be called urban districts.
2. Exercising authority, control, supervision, etc., in or over a city or town.
Used by Howell in place of his usual urbane.
1651. Howell, Venice, 16. All Magistrats are either Urban or Forren, viz. of Town or Country.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Walk Lond. & Westm., Wks. 1720, III. 317. The pathetick Harangue of that Urban Magistrate a R—r.
1815. J. C. Hobhouse, Substance Lett. (1816), II. 17. The national guard of Paris,… that urban guard whose patriotism and approved zeal [etc.].
1872. Act 35–36 Vict., c. 79 § 4. Urban sanitary authorities shall be the several bodies of persons specified [etc.].
1886. Encycl. Brit., XX. 145/2. The Urban Quæstors.
b. Residing, dwelling, or having property in a city or town.
1837. C. Lofft, Self-formation, I. 40. His urban, or suburban brother, the man of the multitude, the unit of the mob.
1849. Alison, Hist. Eur., I. ii. 225. Government has … found a counterpoise to the vehemence of urban democracy.
1873. Morley, Struggle Nat. Educ., 95. The brutalising lives that are led by the rural and urban poor in their crowded hovels.
1889. Spectator, 14 Dec., 834. How do they justify the absorption of the increment of value from urban landholders alone?
B. sb. One who belongs to or lives in a town or city.
1891. Cent. Dict. Also in recent use (1922).
Hence Urbanism, urban character. [Cf. F. urbanisme.]
1889. Universal Rev., Oct., 210. The local colour or detail, the sentiment or the social life, the provincialism or urbanism of the story.
