Gotham

English

Etymology

When originally used in England, the meaning of the place name Gotham was literally “homestead where goats are kept”, from Old English gāt (“goat”) +‎ hām (“home”).[1]

As nickname for New York City, first used 1807 by Washington Irving in his Salmagundi Papers.[2]

Pronunciation

(nickname of New York, setting of the Batman franchise): IPA^(key): /ˈɡɒθəm/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
(English village): IPA^(key): /ˈɡəʊtəm/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
(English village) Rhymes: -əʊtəm

Proper noun

Gotham

A nickname for New York City.
- 2010, Jared Koch, Alex Van Buren, Clean Plates Manhattan 2011 […] , page 99:
  Naturally sweetened desserts—delicious ones—have several hiding places in Gotham, and the Upper East Side's Candle Café is among the best.
A village and civil parish in Rushcliffe borough, Nottinghamshire, England, associated in folklore with insanity (OS grid ref SK5330).
(fiction) Ellipsis of Gotham City.

Derived terms

Gothamite

References

Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “Gotham”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Washington Irving (1807 April 18) “To Correspondents”, in Salmagundi‎, G. P. Putnam's sons, New York, pages 183–184:
This passage of the erudite Linkum was applied to the city of Gotham, of which he was once Lord Mayor, as appears by his picture hung up in the hall of that ancient city ; but his observation fits this best of all possible cities “to a hair.” It is a melancholy truth that this same New York, though the most charming, pleasant, polished, and praiseworthy city under the sun, and in a word the bonne bouche of the universe, is most shockingly ill-natured and sarcastic, and wickedly given to all manner of backslidings ; for which we are very sorry, indeed.