different between town vs locale

English

Alternative forms

• tahn, tawn (Bermuda),
• toune, towne (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English town, toun, from Old English t?n (“enclosure, garden”), from Proto-Germanic *t?n? (“fence”) (compare West Frisian tún, Dutch tuin (“garden”), German Zaun, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian tun), from Gaulish d?nom (“hill, hillfort”), from Proto-Celtic *d?nom (compare archaic Welsh din (“hill”), Irish dún (“fortress”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dewh?- (“to finish, come full circle”). Doublet of dun. See also -ton and tine (“to enclose”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ta?n/, [t?a??n]
• Rhymes: -a?n

Noun

town (countable and uncountable, plural towns)

1. A settlement; an area with residential districts, shops and amenities, and its own local government; especially one larger than a village and smaller than a city.
2. Any more urbanized center than the place of reference.
3. (Britain, historical) A rural settlement in which a market was held at least once a week.
4. The residents (as opposed to gown: the students, faculty, etc.) of a community which is the site of a university.
5. (colloquial) Used to refer to a town or similar entity under discussion.
6. (humorous, ironic) A major city, especially one where the speaker is located.
7. (law) A municipal organization, such as a corporation, defined by the laws of the entity of which it is a part.
8. (obsolete) An enclosure which surrounded the mere homestead or dwelling of the lord of the manor.
9. (obsolete) The whole of the land which constituted the domain.
10. (obsolete) A collection of houses enclosed by fences or walls.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Palsgrave to this entry?)

11. (Britain, Scotland, dialect, obsolete) A farm or farmstead; also, a court or farmyard.

Usage notes

• An urban city is typically larger than a rural town, which in turn is typically larger than a village. In rural areas, a town may be considered urban. In urban areas, a town can be considered suburban; a village in the suburbs. The distinctions are fluid and dependent on subjective perception.

Hypernyms

• settlement

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ??? (taun)

Translations

See also

• urban
• suburban
• rural

Anagrams

• nowt, wo'n't, won't, wont

Middle English

Noun

town

1. Alternative form of toun

English

Etymology

From French local (adj), nominal use of the adjective.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /l???k??l/
• Rhymes: -??l
• (US) IPA^(key): /lo??kæl/
• Rhymes: -æl

Noun

locale (plural locales)

1. The place where something happens.

   Being near running water and good shade, the explorers decided it was a good locale for setting up camp.

2. (computing) The set of settings related to the language and region in which a computer program executes. Examples are language, currency and time formats, character encoding etc.
3. (mathematics) A partially ordered set with the following additional axiomatic properties: any finite subset of it has a meet, any arbitrary subset of it has a join, and distributivity, which states that a binary meet distributes with respect to an arbitrary join. (Note: locales are just like frames except that the category of locales is opposite to the category of frames.)

Hyponyms

• (mathematics): spatial locale

Translations

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l?.kal/

Adjective

locale

1. feminine singular of local

Italian

Etymology

From Late Latin loc?lis, loc?lem, from Latin locus.

Adjective

locale (plural locali)

1. local

Noun

locale m (plural locali)

1. room

Related terms

• località
• localizzare
• localmente
• locare
• locativo
• luogo

Anagrams

• alcole

Latin

Adjective

loc?le

1. nominative neuter singular of loc?lis
2. accusative neuter singular of loc?lis
3. vocative neuter singular of loc?lis

References

• locale in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)