Precinct

How to spell precinct

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce precinct

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does precinct mean?

1. nounA defined administrative area, especially one for policing or voting.
2. nounAn enclosed or bounded area around a building, or a designated zone in a town.

Precinct in a sentence

• The police precinct covered three neighbourhoods on the east side.

• The cathedral precinct was quiet once the gates were locked for the night.

• Voters in the seventh precinct reported long queues at the polls.

• The new shopping precinct banned cars to make room for pedestrians.

Where does precinct come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Precinct comes from the Latin praecinctum, the neuter past participle of praecingere, which literally meant 'to gird about' or 'to encircle', built from prae meaning 'before' or 'around' and cingere meaning 'to gird' or 'to surround'. In medieval Latin praecinctum came to mean an enclosed space, especially the bounded ground around a church or other important building. English took the word up in the fifteenth century to describe such an enclosed area, and from there it broadened to mean any clearly defined district. The same Latin cingere, meaning 'to gird', also survives in words like 'cincture' (a belt) and 'precise' is a cousin through prae as well; that hidden 'c' before the 'inct' is the part writers most often drop, so it helps to remember the encircling 'cinct' at its heart. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries American usage had attached it firmly to administrative areas for policing and voting.

How the word is built

• prae- (before, around)
• cinct (from cingere: to gird, encircle)