Oppidan

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A student at certain British universities, especially Oxford or Cambridge, who lives in private lodgings rather than in college
2. A person dwelling in an urban setting, often involved in community matters, and typically a student not residing on campus at specific British universities
3. A resident of a town or city, particularly one who studies at certain prestigious British institutions while living outside university accommodations

Etymology: Oppidan is one of those words where the surprise is the reversal. At Eton College, the "oppidans" are the ordinary boys who lodge in houses in the town of Eton, as opposed to the "collegers" who board in the school's own foundation. The name comes from Latin "oppidanus," meaning "of a town" or, in Roman usage, "provincial." The Latin noun "oppidum" was a fortified settlement, and the sense it carried was a town set apart from the great city, so a "oppidanus" was a townsman rather than a metropolitan. The word passed into English by way of that Latin adjective, with the suffix "-an" marking its adjectival character, as in "urban" or "Roman." Its use as a noun for a student who lives off the college grounds gives the term a quiet irony: in its original Latin sense it described people from the lesser places, yet at Eton the town-dwelling boys became the larger, more numerous body of pupils.