Precinct

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈpɹisɪŋkt/

Definitions

1. An area within a city or town that has defined boundaries and is under the jurisdiction of a specific police station or local government authority
2. A designated geographical area typically associated with a specific law enforcement office or local governance body within a larger city or municipality
3. A specific geographic division within a city that is governed by a particular police department or administrative agency

Etymology: The word began as a physical image rather than a political one. Its Latin source, "praecinctum", was the neuter form of "praecinctus", a past participle of "praecingere", meaning to surround or gird, built from "prae" ("before") and "cingere" ("encircle"). An enclosure was literally a thing girded around, a boundary line drawn round an area. The same root gave English "cinch", the strap that girds a saddle. Medieval Latin shifted that sense toward a bounded area of land. By the early fifteenth century, Middle English speakers were using "precinct" for a district set apart for government purposes, which is where the modern police sense grows from. A precinct, in other words, is still an enclosed space in the old sense, just one defined by law and administration rather than by a fence or wall.

Synonyms: district, area, zone, region, sector