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Borough, or Burgh,

Originally a company of ten families living together, afterwards a town, incorporated or not, in Great Britain, which sent a representative to Parliament. Also a castle, a walled town, or other fortified place. In the United States the word is generally applied to an incorporated town or village, especially in Pennsylvania. The city of Greater New York, which went into existence on Jan. 1, 1898, is comprised of five boroughs. Both borough and burgh are also used as terminations of place-names, and, in the United States, under the ruling of the board on Geographic names (q. v.), the forms are now boro and burg. The difference between burgh and berg in terminology is that the former means that the place is a borough as above described, and the latter a place on or near a mountain. An exception to the rule is found in the case of Edinburgh, Scotland, in which the “h” is retained, and in Pittsburgh, Pa., where the people insist on retaining the “h.”

Harper and Brothers Publishers. . New York. 1902.

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Hubert Burgh (1)
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January 1st, 1898 AD (1)
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