The Collaborative International Dictionary
Banlieue \Ban"li*eue`\, n. [F., fr. LL. bannum leucae, banleuca;
bannum jurisdiction + leuca league.]
The territory without the walls, but within the legal limits,
of a town or city.
--Brande & C.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
French, "suburbs, precincts," from Vulgar Latin *banleuca, from ban (see ban (n.1)) + leuca "a league (of distance)," in Medieval Latin, "indefinite extent of territory" (see league (n.2)). So, "the extent of a ban; the territory within which a ban is of force," hence, "territory subject to one jurisdiction."
Wiktionary
n. The outskirts of a city, especially in France, inhabited chiefly by poor people living in tenement-style housing
Wikipedia
In France, a banlieue is a suburb of a large city. Banlieues are divided into autonomous administrative entities and do not constitute part of the city proper. For instance, 80% of the inhabitants of the Paris area live outside the city of Paris. Like the city centre, suburbs may be rich, middle-class or poor— Versailles, Le Vésinet, Maisons-Laffitte and Neuilly-sur-Seine are affluent banlieues of Paris, while Clichy-sous-Bois, Bondy and Corbeil-Essonnes are less so. However, since the 1970s, banlieues increasingly means, in French of France, low-income housing projects ( HLMs) in which mainly foreign immigrants and French of foreign descent reside, often in perceived poverty traps.
Usage examples of "banlieue".
At the corner on the left of this breastwork, they saw the head of the column of a battalion of the banlieue massed in the Rue St.
Power being uneasy, held suspended over the menacing multitude twenty-four thousand soldiers in the city and thirty thousand in the banlieue.
With a blue capote and a chicken in his shako, here's the banlieue, co-cocorico.
The outer boulevard is their breathing medium, and the banlieue belongs to them.
So that the sharpshooters of the line ranged on the outlook behind their paving-stone dike and the sharpshooters of the banlieue massed at the corner of the street suddenly pointed out to each other something moving through the smoke.
Anxious authority held suspended over the threatening multitude twenty-four thousand soldiers in the city, and thirty thousand in the banlieue.
The Volkswagen proceeded at a moderate pace through the banlieue of Paris towards St.
This very night in a village in the banlieue he terrified the congregation of an entire church.
L'Ariane had the reputation of being one of the most deprived and violent banlieues in France, after those that ringed Paris.
There was even an old stone farmhouse and barns, which had long since given up the struggle against the encroaching banlieues.
What had happened down in the industrial estate would be a massive deal, even for such a rough banlieue.
On a long underground journey to one of the banlieues, the downtrodden areas that ringed Paris proper, the two conversed in low voices, making plans like lovebirds, or fugitives.