ABSTRACT
One of those derivatives of urbs then in use in Spanish ivas suburbio /suburb}: common, and m ore especially, official usage having adm itted th e word suburb,
w hich is a compound of urb, it is a sore point that the la tter should not have been hispanicized, for in both official and common language it would have spared the use o f c ircu m locu tory p h ra se s w h ich an yon e w ho w a n ts to e x p r e ss th e id ea o f an unqualified group of buildings or dwellings finds him self forced to use, that is, without specifying, w ith the word used, w hether it is w hat is called a city, township, town, place, or village. (1867, TGU, 1,471-472)
The curious circum stance tha t there was no Spanish transla tion or equivalent o f urbs a t tha t tim e, while there were severa l deriva tives o f th a t L a tin term , m ay have made rap id acceptance o f the neolog ism s that he coined from that root easier. On the other hand , such m ore o r less comm on d er iva tiv e s sh a red one comm on fea tu re , nam ely that, as occurs in Latin , a lm o s t a ll referred to “qualities and circum stances and happenstances p roper to the groups o f combined bu ild ings ” (1867, TGU, 1,50k).
