Metro

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈmɛtɹəʊ/

Definitions

1. A rapid transit railway system operating within an urban area, typically running underground or on elevated tracks
2. A public transportation system commonly found in cities, known for its efficient underground or above-ground trains that facilitate commuter travel across urban landscapes
3. An urban rail network designed to transport large numbers of passengers quickly, usually featuring trains that operate beneath or above the city streets

Etymology: The London Underground opened its first line in 1863 as the Metropolitan Railway, and that name is the seed of the word. Paris later borrowed the idea and the wording: its early network was called the "Chemin de fer métropolitain", a direct translation of "Metropolitan Railway". French speakers soon shortened it to "métro", and the clipped form then travelled back into English as a name for an urban rapid train, the kind that runs underground in a city. The longer term behind it is Greek. "Metropolitan" comes from "mētēr", meaning "mother", and "polis", meaning "city", so the original sense is something like "mother city", a city that is the centre of a larger region. The railway name borrowed that idea of a central, major city, and the train inherited it. Because the English word is a clipping of "metropolitan", it is a shortened form of a word that already existed in English, rather than a fresh coinage. Its distinctive meaning came from the transport system itself.

Synonyms: subway, underground, transit