English
Urban
Urban comes from Latin Urbānus ‘of the town or city, urbane’, and goes back to urbs.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEurbs‘city’next step skipped: Latin urbānus
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEUrbānus‘of the town or city, urbane’
- Englishearliest quotation 1380sUrban
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEurbs‘city’next step skipped: Latin urbānus
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEUrbānus‘of the town or city, urbane’
- Englishearliest quotation 1380sUrban
Earliest quotation: 1380s, Wycliffe translation of the Bible: “Grete wel Vrban, oure helpere in Crist Jhesus, and…”
The story
Latin Urbānus, name of eight early popes, from urbānus (‘of the town or city, urbane’).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *werbʰ- ‘to enclose’
Today it means
name A male given name from Latin.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin urbs / Urban