From the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary... 22:30 Mar 27, 2014
under TOWN
[ORIGIN Old English tūn = Old Frisian, Old Saxon tūn, Old High German zūn (Dutch tuin garden, German Zaun) fence, hedge, Old Norse tún from Germanic, rel. to Celtic, Old Irish dún, Welsh din (in place names) fort, camp, castle, fortified place. Cf. toonie.] 1 ▸ †a An enclosed piece of ground, an enclosure; a field, a garden, a courtyard. OE–LME. ▸ b spec. The enclosed land surrounding or belonging to a single dwelling; a farm with its farmhouse. Long obsolete exc. Scot. OE.
2 The house or group of houses or buildings on an area of enclosed land; a farmstead, a homestead. Now chiefly Scot. OE.
3 A cluster of houses or other buildings; a small village, a hamlet. Now Scot., dial., Austral., & NZ. OE.
4 An inhabited place larger and more regularly built and with more complete and independent local government than a village but not created a city. Also without article (and freq. preceded by a preposition): (the centre of) some village, town, or city understood or identified contextually...
Came across this in a completely different connection.
I don't think there is a single word, but would 'site' fit in any of your cases? |