Other forms: boroughs
A borough is a town district with its own local council. The London boroughs, a borough council, borough elections.
London has thirty-two boroughs plus the City, and New York has five — the word does different work in each. Historically a borough was a town with a royal charter and the right to send members to Parliament, which is where rotten borough comes from. Note that borough, burgh, bury and burg are all the same word, which is why so many English town names end in one of them.
1nounboroughA town district with its own local council.
“Each London borough collects its own rubbish and runs its own libraries.”
borough is an administrative district.
Old English burh meant a fortified place, from Proto-Germanic burgz. German Burg, Dutch burcht and the -bury and -burgh in place names are all the same stronghold.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰerǵʰ-
Proto-Germanic
*burgz — stronghold, city
Proto-West Germanic
*burg
Old English
burh
Middle English
borwe
English, today
borough
From Middle English borwe, borgh, burgh, buruh, from Old English burh, burg, from Proto-West Germanic burg, from Proto-Germanic burgz (“stronghold, city”). Cognate with Dutch burcht, German Burg, Danish borg, Swedish borg, French bourg, Turkish burç. a doublet of Brough and burgh and Bury.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA