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GCheng620 Posted 12 years ago
Vocabulary

The word Metro

How come a lot of cities' public transport systems bear a name with that word???
And there's almost always a Metro Expo line in the subway system
  

Top answer

Good dictionaries will tell you word origins, where known. com/us/definition/american_english/metro : from French métro , abbreviation of métropolitain (from Chemin de Fer Métropolitain 'Metropolitan Railroad').

— GPY

  • Good dictionaries will tell you word origins, where known.
  • com/us/definition/american_english/metro : from French métro , abbreviation of métropolitain (from Chemin de Fer Métropolitain 'Metropolitan Railroad').
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6 Answers
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Good dictionaries will tell you word origins, where known. From http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/metro :

from French métro, abbreviation of métropolitain (from Chemin de Fer Métropolitain 'Metropolitan Railroad').
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GPYGood dictionaries will tell you word origins, where known. From
THAnk you GPY!
Also are a lot of people calling MRT systemp(mass rapid transit, to be accurate) the METRO???
Seems so to me!
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GCheng620Also are a lot of people calling MRT systemp(mass rapid transit, to be accurate) the METRO???
"Metro" has become a generic term, but the correct (English-language) name for any specific metro-like system depends on local convention. For example, the London system is called "the Undergound" (or sometimes "the Tube") and never "the Metro". The New York
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GPY GCheng620Also are a lot of people calling MRT systemp(mass rapid transit, to be accurate) the METRO???"Metro" has become a generic term, but the correct (English-language) name for any specific metro-like system depends on local convention. For example, the London system is called "the Undergound" (or sometimes "the Tube") and never "the Metro". The New York system is
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GCheng620How come a lot of cities' public transport systems bear a name with that word??? (metro)
Because "metro" is a short form of "metropolis", which means "city".

It was originally used for "capital city", being from the Greek metropolis 'mother state', from meter, metr- 'mother' + polis 'city'. So in so
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