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Town (A)

is the Anglo-Saxon tún, a plot of ground fenced round or enclosed by a hedge; a single dwelling; a number of dwelling-houses enclosed together forming a village or burgh.

“Our ancestors in time of war … would cast a ditch, or make a strong hedge about their houses, and houses so environed … got the name tunes annexed unto them (as Cote-tun, now Cotton, the cote or house fenced in or tuned about; North-tun, now Norton … South-tun, now Sutton). In troublous times whole ‘thorpesʹ were fenced in, and took the name of tunes (towns), and then ‘stedesʹ (now cities), and ‘thorpesʹ (villages), and burghs (burrows) . . got the name of townes.”—Restitution, p. 232.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Tournament or Tournay
Tournemine
Tours
Tout (pronounce towt)
Tout Ensemble (French)
Tout est Perdu Hormis LHonneur
Tout le Monde
Tower of Hunger
Tower of London
Towers of Silence
Town (A)
Town and Gown Row (A)
Toyshop of Europe (The)
Tracing of a Fortress (The)
Tracts for the Times
Tractarians
Tracy
Trade
Trade Mark
Trade Winds
Trade follows the Flag