Etymology
The term is a combination of “city” in the sense of “an incorporated administrative district”, and “proper” in the sense of “strictly limited to a specified thing, place, or idea” or “strictly accurate” In encyclopedias, the term “city proper” is often used as an example to illustrate the meaning of the word “proper” in the sense of "tightly defined."
- Encarta: “narrowly identified, strictly identified and distinguished from something else” - stayed in the suburbs, not the city proper
- Merriam-Webster: “strictly limited to a specified thing, place, or idea
” - Dictionary.com: “in the strict sense of the word (usually used postpositively)”:- Is the school within Boston proper or in the suburbs?
- Sensagent: “limited to the thing specified "the city proper
- The Free Dictionary: “Being within the strictly limited sense, as of a term designating something: the town proper, excluding the suburbs.”
Read more about this topic: City Proper
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)