suburbia

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The suburbs as a whole and all that characterizes or pertains to them; (sometimes derogatory) the suburbs as encapsulated or represented by the typical characteristics or qualities of the people living there, especially complacency, conformity, conservativeness, dullness, etc.

   The Germanic nations, in their invasions of Italy, introduced the appellation [borgo] into that country, where it was generally applied to the houses and streets built outside the gates of a walled town, corresponding to the Roman suburbia.

2. 2
   noun

   suburbanites considered as a cultural class or subculture

3. 3
   noun

   a residential district located on the outskirts of a city

Etymology

PIE word *upó From suburb + -ia (suffix forming abstract nouns, the names of collections of things, etc.), perhaps modelled after Latin suburbia (“suburbs”), the plural of suburbium.