early 14c., "area outside a town or city," whether agricultural or residential but most frequently residential, from Old French suburbe "suburb of a town," from Latin suburbium "an outlying part of a city" (especially Rome), from sub "below, near" (see sub-) + urbs (genitive urbis) "city" (see urban). Glossed in Old English as underburg. Just beyond the reach of municipal jurisdiction, suburbs had a bad reputation in 17c. England, especially those of London, and suburban had a sense of "inferior, debased, licentious" (as in suburban sinner, slang for "loose woman, prostitute"). By 1817, the tinge had shifted to "of inferior manners and narrow views." Compare also French equivalent faubourg.
[T]he growth of the metropolis throws vast numbers of people into distant dormitories where ... life is carried on without the discipline of rural occupations and without the cultural resources that the Central District of the city still retains. [Lewis Mumford, 1922]
实用例句
1. Their ears were still attuned to the sounds of the London suburb.
他们依然很熟悉伦敦市郊的喧闹声。来自柯林斯例句
2. Margaret resides with her invalid mother in a London suburb.
玛格丽特同她病弱的母亲住在伦敦郊区。来自柯林斯例句
3. It had become almost a dormitory suburb of the city.
它几乎成为了城市的一个市郊住宅区。来自柯林斯例句
4. Anna was born in 1923 in Ardwick, a suburb of Manchester.
