inner city

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED has "inner city" from 1968 as "the central area of a city, esp. regarded as having particular problems of overcrowding, poverty, etc."  Perhaps this entry needs some historical clarification.

Ralph Manheim's 1943 translation of _Mein Kampf_ features this striking usage near the end of ch. 2:

"Particularly the Inner City and the districts north of the Danube Canal swarmed with a people which even outwardly had lost all resemblance to Germans."

The 1911 _Britannica_ tells us, however, that

"The inner city [of Vienna]...is still, unlike the older parts of most European towns, the most aristocratic quarter, containing the palaces of the emperor and of many of the nobility, the government offices, many of the embassies and legations, the opera house and the principal hotels."

The earliest "inner city" I can find through EEBO and ECCO is the following:

1722 Francois Petis de la Croix _The History of Genghizcan the Great_ (London: J. Darby, 1722):  In this great City [of Samarcand] there was an Inclosure called the inner City, which had four Gates, but the Walls were defenceless. The principal Mosque of Samarcand was within this Enclosure [sic], as also the Palace where the Prince used to reside.

Other 18th C. exx. refer to ancient Athens and Memphis.

JL


---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
 Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site!