3

In my language if I want to say that one lives in the same city as I do use the word “concitadin”. It is formed from the word “citadin (adj.) = urban, city (adj.)” which takes the prefix “con”.

Same for the country: “conational”, which is derived from national taking the prefix “co”, describes one who lives or belongs to the same country as I do.

Is there in English a word to describe the same meaning?

Improve this question

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
5

Not really, a person who lives in your same town is defined as your " fellow citizen", likewise the person is your" fellow countryman" or countrywoman if you are from the same country. Hope it can help.

Improve this answer
4
  • 4
    Of course the problem with citizen is that it has all but lost its meaning of "inhabitant of a city", and is now more commonly understood as "inhabitant of a nation".
    – oerkelens
    Commented Mar 24, 2014 at 7:53
  • 4
    To be city-specific, the pattern "my fellow X" can be used like this: "John is my fellow New Yorker," "Jean is my fellow Parisian," etc.
    – Damkerng T.
    Commented Mar 24, 2014 at 8:28
  • Every language has "holes" in it, where some circumlocution is required to express what would be a single word in another language. This is one of English's "holes".
    – Stan Rogers
    Commented Mar 24, 2014 at 10:45
  • Could we use coinhabitant? It normally applies to dwellings but could it apply to cities/towns/villages?
    – cup
    Commented Mar 24, 2014 at 11:22
1

In the strictest possible sense co-citizen would be the English variant of concitadin, however the popular usage of citizen (a person who lives in a particular town or city, originally a concatenation of the word city and denizen, cit(y)-(den)izen => cit-izen => citizen) actually makes citizen mean the same as national (someone who officially belongs to a particular country). Therefore in correct English I would be a citizen of Glasgow if I lived in Glasgow and a British national if I lived in Britain.

However for common English you would use countryman, countrywoman or compatriot for conacional (depending on the level of specificity and tone you wish to convey), and fellow town variant descriptor: for example fellow Londoner, fellow Glaswegian, fellow Aberdonian etc. to describe someone as being from the same city/town as yourself.

Using the word fellow can add to the meaning and indicate that you share the status you have attributed to them, and are stating the that you and the people mentioned are members of a group (abstract or real): fellow citizens (the person stating this is also a citizen in the same locale) vs. citizens (the person stating this is mentioning a group who are citizens, but not stating whether they are or not).

Hope that helps:)

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .