oppidan

oppidan

English

Etymology

From Latin oppidanus, from oppidum (“town”).

Adjective

oppidan (not comparable)

1. (rare) Of or pertaining to a town or conurbation.
   • 1843, George Calvert Holland, The Vital Statistics of Sheffield , page 106:

     ... calculating the portions of the population, which are purely oppidan, suburban and rural, separately, ...

   • 1982, Ion Miclea and Corneliu Bucur, An Ages-old Civilization :

     In terms of socio-economic impact, it appears that the water mill was an oppidan development in the Roman possessions, including Dacia.

   • 1984, Gerald Cornelius Monsman, Confessions of a Prosaic Dreamer: Charles Lamb's art of autobiography , →ISBN, page 78:

     The beggar whom Elia encounters... is an oppidan caricature of the old man in “Witches” who was conjured up in the demonic vision, a dark, irrational double that overwhelms and destroys innocence.

Noun

oppidan (plural oppidans)

1. (rare, obsolete) A town dweller.
   • 1856, John Wade, England's Greatness , page 496:

     But money is all-potent, and wealthy oppidans soon found means to elbow the aristocracy in their choicest assemblies.

2. (also Oppidan) A class of student in traditional English public schools such as Eton; opposed to colleger or King's Scholar.
   • 1983, Bridget Boland and Muriel St. Clare Byrne, The Lisle Letters , →ISBN, page 96:

     ... might conceivably imply that he did not live, as the custom had been for such boys, in the Abbot's own house, but lodged in the town of Winchester and perhaps attended the College as an oppidan, or townsman.