A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size definition for what constitutes a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world.

The word town shares an origin with the German word "Zaun", the Dutch word "tuin", and the Old Norse "tun". The German word "Zaun" comes closest to the original meaning of the word: a fence of any material. An early borrowing from Celtic *dunom (cf. Old Irish dun, Welsh din "fortress, fortified place, camp," dinas "city").

In English and Dutch, the meaning of the word took on the sense of the space which these fences enclosed. In England, a town was a small community that could not afford or was not allowed to build walls or other larger fortifications, and built a palisade or stockade instead. In the Netherlands, this space was a garden, more specifically those of the wealthy, which had a high fence or a wall around them (like the garden of palace Het Loo in Apeldoorn, which was the example for the privy garden of William III and Mary II at Hampton Court). In Old Norse "tun" means a (grassy) place between farmhouses, and is still used in a similar meaning in modern Norwegian.

Answer the following questions:
1. What is a town?
2. What words does it share it's origin with?
3. Which of these words come closest to it's original meaning?
4. In england what is a town?
5. What about the Netherlands?
6. In Old Norse what does tun mean?
7. Does the definition of town by area vary?
8. What is the word Zaun an early borrowing from?
9. In English and Dutch what did the the word take on the sense of?
10. What settlement is a town larger than?
1. a human settlement
2. Zaun, tuin", and tun
3. Zaun
4. a small community that could not afford or was not allowed to build walls
5. it was a garden
6. town
7. yes
8. unknown
9. space which fences enclosed
10. a village