[foh-boo
r, -boorg; Fr. foh-boor] 
[-boorz, -boorgz; Fr. -boor] . | a suburb or a quarter just outside a French city. |
| fau·bourg (fō'bŏŏr', -bŏŏrg') n. A district lying outside the original city limits of a French-speaking city or a city with a French heritage, such as New Orleans. See Regional Note at beignet. [Middle English faubourgh, from Old French faubourg, alteration (influenced by faux, false) of forsborc : fors, outside (from Latin forīs; see dhwer- in Indo-European roots) + borc, town (from Late Latin burgus, fort, of Germanic origin; see bhergh-2 in Indo-European roots).] The close political ties between Scotland and France during the 15th through 17th centuries were reflected in linguistic borrowing from French to Scots, as in the case of faubourg, a synonym for suburb. In England faubourg seems to have lost the competition with the more popular suburb. However, in contemporary American English the word still exists, although it is virtually confined to the city of New Orleans, where faubourg remains in use because of the city's French background. Even there it is used not as a common noun like suburb but in combination in the names of various quarters of the city, for example, Faubourg Sainte Marie. These city districts, like their counterparts in Paris, such as Faubourg Saint-Germain and Faubourg Saint-Antoine, originally lay outside the city limits, hence the designation faubourg, originally from Old French fors, "outside," and borc, "town." As the population grew outward, these former suburbs became part of the city proper. |