townee, n. and a.
(ˈtaʊniː, older taʊˈniː)
[f. town n. + -ee.]
A. n. A townsman, esp. as distinguished from a member of the university (cf. towny n. 2); or (now usu.) as distinguished from a country-dweller (cf. towny n. 1). Freq. pejorative.
| 1897 Westm. Gaz. 13 May 6/3 The ‘townees’ [at Oxford] had notified their intention of breaking all undecorated windows. 1900 G. Swift Somerley 69 Mr. Bobber, a Cambridge grocer,..considered that there was one law for the collegian and another for the ‘townee’. 1902 Daily Chron. 16 Aug. 8/3 Just of as much importance is comfortable foot-gear to the townee as to the dweller in the country. 1929 S. Kaye-Smith in H. C. Minchin Legion Bk. 195 The æsthetic week-ender is like other townees in that he generally fails to realize that the real country-dweller..is a very mass of conventions. 1939 Auden in I Believe (1940) 18 We frequently admire the ‘goodness’ of illiterate peasants as compared with the ‘badness’ of many townees. 1976 J. I. M. Stewart Memorial Service xv. 245 Janet as a child had been a townee like myself. |
B. adj. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of town-dwellers or the town.
| 1935 H. H. Bashford Lodgings for Twelve 110 For the townee, as he called him, and townee pursuits, he had a quite unconcealed if tolerant contempt. 1936 Auden Look, Stranger! 55 The identical and townee smartness. 1960 W. Miller Russians as People 60 It is all fascinating to the foreigner trying to sniff out ‘Russian life’, but to the townee Russian it is the shabby side of the familiar. 1972 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 24 Nov. 18/1 The Australians are far and away the most urbanised and townee of all nations. |