English
Free City of Tri-Insula
Free City of Tri-Insula comes from English city ‘city characterized by relative autonomy’.
- English1500–presentcity‘city characterized by relative autonomy’
- Englishearliest quotation 1925Free City of Tri-Insula
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- English1500–presentcity‘city characterized by relative autonomy’
- Englishearliest quotation 1925Free City of Tri-Insula
Earliest quotation: 1925, William Thompson Bonner, Wood’s Proposed Free City”: “The commercial interests of New York were ever opposed…”
Made of the words Free + City + of + Tri-Insula
Proto-Indo-European *preyH- ‘to please; to love’
…
Proto-Germanic *frijaz ‘free’
Proto-West Germanic *frī ‘free’
Old English frēo ‘free, at liberty’
Middle English fre ‘having the status of a freeman’
English Free
Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- ‘to settle, be lying down’
…
Latin cīvis ‘citizen’
Latin cīvitās ‘citizenship; the state, citizens’
Old French citet ‘city’
Middle English cite ‘a city’
English City
Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep
…
Proto-West Germanic *ab
Old English æf
Old English of ‘from’
Middle English of
English of
The story
From free city (‘city characterized by relative autonomy’) + of + a learned borrowing from Latin tri- (combining form of trēs (‘three’)) + īnsula (‘island’), coined by the 76th mayor of New York City, Fernando Wood (1812–1881), in 1861.
Every English word from English city
Today it means
name A proposed city-state comprising Long Island, Manhattan, and Staten Island, put forward on January 6th, 1861, by the mayor of New York City, Fernando Wood, shortly before the beginning of the American Civil War.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / English city / Free City of Tri-Insula