oppidan
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Latin oppidanus, from oppidum (“town”).
Adjective
[edit]oppidan (not comparable)
- (rare) Of or pertaining to a town or conurbation.
- 1843, George Calvert Holland, The Vital Statistics of Sheffield, page 106:
- ... calculating the portions of the population, which are purely oppidan, suburban and rural, separately, ...
- 1982, Ion Miclea, Corneliu Bucur, An Ages-old Civilization[1]:
- In terms of socio-economic impact, it appears that the water mill was an oppidan development in the Roman possessions, including Dacia.
- 1984, Gerald Cornelius Monsman, Confessions of a Prosaic Dreamer: Charles Lamb's art of autobiography[2], →ISBN, page 78:
- The beggar whom Elia encounters... is an oppidan caricature of the old man in “Witches” who was conjured up in the demonic vision, a dark, irrational double that overwhelms and destroys innocence.
Noun
[edit]oppidan (plural oppidans)
- (rare, obsolete) A town dweller.
- 1856, John Wade, England's Greatness, page 496:
- But money is all-potent, and wealthy oppidans soon found means to elbow the aristocracy in their choicest assemblies.
- (also Oppidan) A class of student in traditional English public schools such as Eton; opposed to colleger or King's Scholar.