Urbanites

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who reside in a city, typically characterized by a lifestyle influenced by urban culture and modern amenities
2. People living in metropolitan areas, often associated with a fast-paced environment and diverse social interactions
3. Residents of towns or cities, usually engaged in contemporary urban living with access to city resources and cultural events

Etymology: "Urbanites" is the plural of "urbanite," a noun formed in English by adding the suffix "-ite" to "urban." The base "urban" came into English through Middle French "urbain" from Latin "urbānus," meaning "of the city," and that Latin adjective grew from "urbs," the word for "city." The suffix "-ite" has a longer and more varied history: it passed from Ancient Greek "-ītēs" through Latin "-ītēs" and "-ītis" and then through French into English, where it is used to form nouns denoting a person or thing connected with a particular place or substance. The surprising twist is that "-ite" is the same ending found in names of minerals and rocks such as "granite" and "dolomite," and in the sense of a resident of a place, as in "Israelite" or "Brooklynite." "Urbanite" thus reuses the same suffix that labels stones, applying it to people who belong to the city. The word is therefore a compound of a Latin-derived adjective and a Greek-derived suffix, assembled in English rather than inherited from a single older word.

Synonyms: city dwellers, metropolitans

Antonyms: ruralites