Where does “urbanism” come from?
Urbanism derives from English urban plus the suffix -ism, tracing through Ancient Greek -ισμός, Latin urbanus (of the city), Latin urbs (city), and Proto-Indo-European wer- (to turn or enclose).
urbanism (English): The study of cities, their geographic, economic,...
Definitions
- The study of cities, their geographic, economic,...
Ancestry of “urbanism”, step by step
urbanism traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English Urban
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Urban | An early Christian, also Urbane and Urbanus in various versions of the Bible |
| 2 | Middle French | urbain | urban, belonging to a city; also: polite,... |
| 3 | Latin | Urbānus | of or belonging to a city; urban |
| 4 | Latin | urbs | a city, walled town; the City, Rome |
| 5 | Proto-Italic | worβis | city |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | werbʰ- | to enclose |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | werb- | to throw, twist, bend; to turn, bend, twist; to... |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | wer- | to burn; to cover, heed, notice; squirrel |
via French urbanisme
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | urbanisme | urban planning, urbanism |
| 2 | French | -ïsme | -ism, variant of -isme following vowels |
| 3 | Latin | -isma | Alternative form of -ismus; -ism |
| 4 | Latin | -ismus | -ism |
| 5 | Ancient Greek | -ισμός | Forms abstract nouns |
| 6 | Ancient Greek | -μός | Forms abstract nouns |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -mós | Creates action/result nouns from verb stems |