banlieue

Definition

The outskirts of a city, especially in France, inhabited chiefly by poor people living in tenement-style housing.

Etymology

Borrowed from French banlieue.

Example Sentences

• "[…] her novel illuminates the general situation facing all children of postcolonial immigrants across the West, from the banlieue of France to the Islamic neighborhoods of New York to the Hispanic ghettos of Los Angeles."
• "But Guy Desplanques, a demographer, pointed out in 2002 that names like Ahmed and Jamila actually were on the wane, and that second-generation French men and women work toward integration by coming up with variations like Yanis or Rayan; the latter has become popular in some banlieues, evoking both the Maghreb and the relatively widespread Ryan."