- uptown (adv.)
- 1802, "to or in the higher or upper portion of a town," from up (adv.) + town (n.). As an adjective from 1838. As this usually was the residential portion of a town (especially a port) the word had overtones of "residential quarter" as opposed to "commercial and industrial district." As a noun from 1946, often meaning "more prosperous area of town."
