"city, town" in seven languages
Meaningcity, town
Spanish
/θjuˈdad/
fem.inherited
French
/vil/
fem.other source · Latin VĪLLAM 'country estate, farmstead'
Cité, the cognate of ciudad, is now the historic core (l'île de la Cité) or a housing estate.
Italian
/tʃitˈta/
fem.inherited
Invariable in the plural: le città.
Portuguese
/siˈdadʒi/
fem.inherited
Romanian
/oˈraʃ/
neut.other source · Hungarian város 'town'
plural: orașe
Cetate, inherited from CĪVITĀTEM, now means 'fortress, citadel'.
Catalan
/siwˈtat/
fem.inherited
English
/ˈsɪti/
from Latin/French · Old French cité
The Latin ancestor
CĪVITĀTEM‘citizenship, community of citizens’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
CĪVITĀTEM wore down to ciudad and città — the -TĀTEM law in action. French promoted a rural estate, the villa, to mean town: the reverse of English, where village stayed small.
English relatives: city, civic, civil, civilization
Sound laws at work
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In a sentence
- esVivo en el centro de la ciudad.
- frJ'habite au centre-ville.
- itAbito in centro città.
- ptMoro no centro da cidade.
- roLocuiesc în centrul orașului.
- caVisc al centre de la ciutat.
- enI live in the city centre.