Metropole

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈmɛtɹəpəʊl/

Definitions

1. A principal city that exerts significant influence over a region’s economy and culture, often regarded as a hub for political activity and growth
2. A major urban center that leads in commerce, culture, and governance, typically associated with the country that oversees its colonies
3. A leading urban area serving as the main city in a nation or geographic location ; the main city that governs and influences its overseas colonies

Etymology: Ancient Greek cities had a useful habit of naming their parent communities. A "mētropolis" was literally a "mother city", the settlement that had sent out colonists to found a daughter colony, and the Greek word joined "mētēr" (mother) to "polis" (city). The Romans borrowed the idea and the Latin "mētropolis" carried the same sense of a city that held authority over its offspring. English received the word through Middle French, where "metropole" came to mean a town that housed a bishop's seat, the principal see of a church province. The form in English kept that church connection for centuries before it was used more broadly for a leading city. The modern sense, the capital city of an empire or a colonizing nation, grew out of that sense of a central, governing city. The word and its near twin "metropolis" are doublets, two forms of one Greek source that entered English by different routes and took on slightly different shades of meaning.

Synonyms: capital, city