Urbanity ur·ban·i·ty /ˌərˈbanitē/ noun 1. suavity, courteousness, and refinement of manner. 2. urban life. refers to the characteristics,
personality traits, and viewpoints associated with
cities and
urban areas. People who can be described as having urbanity are also referred to as
citified. The word is related to the
Latin urbanitas with connotations of refinement and
elegance, the opposite of
rusticus, associated with the
countryside. In Latin the word referred originally to the view of the world from
ancient Rome. The
name Urban has been taken as a
papal name by nine
popes and referred to the location of the
Holy See at the
Vatican in Rome and the pope's status as
Bishop of Rome.
Urbane has a similar meaning;
Oxford English Dictionary notes that the relationship of
urbane to
urban is similar to the relationship
humane bears to
human.
[1] In language,
urbanity still connotes a smooth and literate style, free of
barbarisms and other infelicities. In antiquity, schools of
rhetoric flourished only in the atmosphere of large cities, to which privileged students flocked from smaller cities in order to gain polish.