faubourg means an outlying part of a city or town, beyond the walls; a suburb, especially of Paris, New Orleans, Montreal, or Quebec City.
faubourg is pronounced /ˈfəʊbʊəɡ/.
Why “faubourg” is a great word
An outlying district of a city, historically one situated just outside its original fortified walls, especially in French-speaking contexts. From the Middle French fau(x)bourg, an alteration (influenced by faux 'false') of Old French forsbourc, from fors 'outside' (from Latin forīs 'outside, out of doors') and bourc, a variant of borc 'town, village' (from Late Latin burgus 'fortified town'), first attested in the 14th century. Unlike 'suburb,' a general term for any residential periphery, or 'banlieue,' a modern administrative designation, a faubourg preserves the ghost of a threshold—the precise line where the city ended and its shadow began. It is the narrow street still tracing the curve of a vanished rampart, the artisans' quarter of foundries that needed to be downwind, the café that served travelers before they passed through the gate—a place defined forever by an absence, by the wall that is no longer there, where the city's exhaled breath still lingers in the brickwork.
noun
- An outlying part of a city or town, beyond the walls; a suburb, especially of Paris, New Orleans, Montreal, or Quebec City.e.g.“At last a great shout went up ... and that was sign sufficient that the faubourgs were ours.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- banlieue 85% match — The outskirts of a city, especially in France, inhabited chiefly by poor people living in tenement-style housing. vs faubourg →
- bastion 80% match — A projecting part of a rampart or other fortification. vs faubourg →
- exurb 80% match — A residential area beyond the suburbs. vs faubourg →
- postern 80% match — A back gate, back door, side entrance, or other gateway distinct from the main entrance, especially in a city wall or fortification. vs faubourg →
- deracine 80% match — Having been uprooted. vs faubourg →
- shantytown 79% match — An area containing a collection of shacks, shanties or makeshift dwellings. vs faubourg →
- ghetto 79% match — An (often walled) area of a city in which Jews are concentrated by force and law. (Used particularly of areas in medieval Italy and in Nazi-controlled Europe.) vs faubourg →
- facade 79% match — The face of a building, especially the front view or elevation. vs faubourg →