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Glite Dictionary
towny

towny

6 8.9
A person who lives in a college town but is not part of the college community
  • noun
  • /ˈtaʊni/
translation icon : local
  • Don't know how you townies managed to cope.
  • townies and students
  • townies come

Examples

  • The townies either support Wild Bob or they're too scared not to.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • It's the townies and office workers who are in deep doo-doo.

    Blog text (15)

  • Now they just keep the townies from coming down here.

    House at the End of the Street (2012)

  • Then they let the townies ride with the stuff!

    Knightriders (1981)

  • Hey, what's up with the townies?

    The Holdovers (2023)

  • Have you seen those old townies from the quarry today?

    Grown Ups 2 (2013)

  • It's not as though they attended college or anything, they're townies.

    Pledge Night (1990)

  • You walk into Lewisburg, there's a hundred townies in there.

    The Town (2010)

  • The townies would be coming in from Drummonds, and they used her road as a shortcut between Routes 8 and 20.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The locals enjoy chatting with townies at the annual fair.

Synonyms

townie
vstowny
  • Informal
13 8.9

A person who lives in a town, not a student or visitor

refers specifically to a college town resident not associated with the college

Surface Forms

towny singular
townies plural

Morphology

towny = town (transparent) = town + y

Formed from the productive suffix '-y' added to 'town' to denote a person from or associated with a town; meaning is directly inferable.

Etymology

The word towny comes from the simple word town plus the ending -y, which gives the idea 'from' or 'belonging to'. It usually means a local person in a college town, the opposite of the students (think of the phrase 'town and gown'), so the origin helps explain why it means a resident not connected to the university.