district

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An area of a town, city, or country, often one with its own character or purpose.

   We had dinner in the city's historic district.

2. 2
   noun

   An area marked off for official or administrative purposes.

   The new policy applies to every school in the district.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

District entered English in the early 17th century through French from medieval Latin districtus. That Latin word referred to the restraint of offenders and to the right to administer justice in a particular area, so district first denoted territory under a feudal lord’s jurisdiction. It ultimately goes back to Latin distringere, “hinder” or “detain.”

From French district, from Medieval Latin districtus (“a district within which the lord may distrain, also jurisdiction”), from Latin districtus, past participle of distringere (“to draw asunder, compel, distrain”), from dis- (“apart”) + stringere (“to draw tight, strain”). Doublet of Detroit.

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