City has a soft c — an s sound before i — and that is a Romance convention English had no use for before the Conquest. Old English c was either the k of cold or the ch of church. Every English word where c says s before e, i or y is therefore a borrowing: city, cell, cycle, pencil, certain.
The word came about 1200 from Old French cite, from Latin civitatem, which originally meant not a place at all but citizenship — the condition and rights of a citizen, and then the body of citizens making up a state. Latin's word for the physical city was urbs. The sense shifted from the people to the place somewhere between Latin and English. The Oxford English Dictionary notes that city was never a native designation but a rather grandiose title used in place of the Old English burh, which survives as borough.
city (n.) c. 1200, from Old French cite "town, city" (10c., Modern French cité ), from earlier citet , from Latin civitatem (nominative civitas ; in Late Latin sometimes citatem ) originally "citizenship, condition or rights of a citizen, membership in the community," later "community of citizens, state, commonwealth" (used, for instance of the Gaulish tribes), from civis "townsman," from PIE root *kei- (1) "to lie," also forming words for "bed, couch," and with a secondary sense of "beloved, dear." Now "a large and important town," but originally in early Middle English a walled town, a capital or cathedral town. Distinction from town is early 14c. OED calls it "Not a native designation, but app[arently] at first a somewhat grandiose title, used instead of the OE. burh" (see borough ). Between Latin and English the sense was transferred from the inhabitants to the place. The Latin word for "city" was urbs , but a resident was civis . Civitas seems to have replaced urbs as Rome (the ultimate urbs ) lost its prestige. Loss of Latin -v- is regular in French in some situations (compare alleger from alleviare ; neige from nivea ; jeune from juvenis . A different sound evolution from the Latin word yielded Italian citta , Catalan ciutat , Spanish ciudad , Portuguese cidade . London is the city from 1550s. As an adjective, "pertaining to a city, urban," from c. 1300. City hall "chief municipal offices" is first recorded 1670s; to fight city hall is 1913, American English. City slicker "a smart and plausible rogue, of a kind usu. found in cities" [OED] is first recorded 1916 (see slick (adj.)). City limits is from 1825. The newspaper city-editor , who superintends the collection and publication of local news, is from 1834, American English; hence city desk attested from 1878. Inner city first attested 1968. also from c. 1200
city came in through Norman French, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
How that family writes these sounds
| /s/ before e, i, or y | c — the soft-c convention is Romance, and Old English had no use for itcity, cell, pencil |
What gives it away on the page
| c said as /s/ before e, i, y | The soft-c convention is Romance; Old English had no use for it.city, cell, cycle, pencil |
Norman French in the spelling guide · guess another word's family