rurban

English

Etymology

Blend of rural +‎ urban, early 20th c.

Adjective

rurban (not comparable)

1. Of or pertaining to a location which has both urban and rural characteristics.
   • 1915, Charles J. Galpin, Rural Life, New York: The Century Company:
   • 1926, John M. Gillette, “Community Concepts”, in Social Forces, volume 4, number 4, page 686:

     The rurban community offers greater possibilities of social stratification than does the open country community.

   • 1946, Walter Firey, “Ecological Considerations in Planning for Rurban Fringes”, in American Sociological Review, volume 11, number 4, page 413:

     There exists what has come to be called the "rurban fringe," an area occupied by tar paper shacks and stately estates, large commercial farms and one-acre part-time farms, golf courses and cemeteries, airports and obnoxious industries.

   • 2002, Andre Wink, “From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean: Medieval History in Geographic Perspective”, in Comparative Studies in Society and History, volume 44, number 3, page 428:

     In the lands of the Indian Ocean ‘agrarian cities’ and ‘rurban’ settlements of all sizes were the general rule throughout the medieval period.

Derived terms

• rurban fringe
• rurbanism
• rurbanist
• rurbanite
• rurbanization
• rurbanize

Translations

of a location which has both urban and rural characteristics

• French: rurbain (fr)
• Spanish: rurbano

References

• “rurban”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “rurban”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

Anagrams

• Raburn