Southtown

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A neighbourhood or area situated on the southern side of a particular town or city
2. The part of a town or city that lies toward its south, often named for that position
3. A district located to the south of a town's centre, known by its position in the urban area

Etymology: "Southtown" is a plain compound of "south" and "town," and the word is best understood through its doublet, "Sutton." Both descend from the same Old English material: "south" with "tun," the old word for an enclosure or farmstead that later came to mean a town. Over the centuries the two forms split apart, with "Sutton" settling into a place-name pattern across England while "southtown" stayed a descriptive compound. The notable thing about "Sutton" is that it is one of the most common English place-names, usually meaning a southern settlement, so the same literal sense has been preserved in hundreds of locations. "Southtown" carries that same idea into everyday speech, naming a district defined by its position relative to a larger city.