Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

City \Cit"y\, n.; pl. {Cities}. [OE. cite, F. cit?, fr. L.
   civitas citizenship, state, city, fr. civis citizen; akin to
   Goth. heiwa (in heiwafrauja man of the house), AS. ?, pl.,
   members of a family, servants, ? family, G. heirath marriage,
   prop., providing a house, E. hind a peasant.]
   1. A large town.

   2. A corporate town; in the United States, a town or
      collective body of inhabitants, incorporated and governed
      by a mayor and aldermen or a city council consisting of a
      board of aldermen and a common council; in Great Britain,
      a town corporate, which is or has been the seat of a
      bishop, or the capital of his see.

            A city is a town incorporated; which is, or has
            been, the see of a bishop; and though the bishopric
            has been dissolved, as at Westminster, it yet
            remaineth a city.                     --Blackstone

            When Gorges constituted York a city, he of course
            meant it to be the seat of a bishop, for the word
            city has no other meaning in English law. --Palfrey

   3. The collective body of citizens, or inhabitants of a city.
      ``What is the city but the people?'' --Shak.

   Syn: See {Village}.