suburban

Word family

• suburb
  nounB1
• suburbs
  noun pluralB1
• suburbanite
  nounB2
• suburbanize
  verbC1
• suburbanization
  nounC1
• inter-suburban
  adjectiveC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Suburban describes places and things specifically located in or characteristic of the suburbs — the residential zones on the edge of a city. Outlying is a more neutral geographical term for areas far from the centre, regardless of whether they are residential or not (e.g. outlying villages). Residential simply describes areas made up of houses rather than shops or factories, and can apply anywhere, including inside the city centre — a street in central London can be residential but never suburban. Commuter-belt (chiefly British) refers to the ring of towns around a major city whose residents travel in daily for work; it is a zoning concept rather than a description of character. For example: 'The suburban train runs every ten minutes' vs 'an outlying farm thirty miles north' vs 'a quiet residential street in the city centre' vs 'towns in the London commuter belt have expensive train fares.'

Common collocations

Etymology

Suburban comes from Latin suburbium, meaning 'an area below or near a city'. The prefix sub- means 'under, near' and urbs means 'city'. In classical Rome, a suburbium was a settlement or villa just outside the city walls. The word passed through Late Latin suburbanus ('of the suburbs') into English in the early 1600s. By the early 20th century, the adjective had developed a second, critical meaning — suggesting that life in the suburbs was dull and narrow — a reflection of cultural attitudes toward the growing middle-class housing developments around major cities.