city in southern Poland, said to have been named for a supposed founder, Krak. Related: Krakowiak.

city in northern Italy, Celtic Vernomago, from verno "elder tree" + mago "field, place." Related: Veronese.

city in modern Belgium, from plural of Flemish brug "bridge," from the Proto-Germanic source of English bridge (n.).

city in Spain, Roman Pompeiopolis, named for Pompey the Great, Roman military leader who founded it 68 B.C.E.

city on the French Riviera, perhaps from a pre-Indo-European word *kan, meaning "height." The film festival dates from 1946.

from 330 C.E. to 1930 the name of what is now Istanbul and formerly was Byzantium, the city on the European side of the Bosphorus that served as the former capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, from Greek Konstantinou polis "Constantine's city," named for Roman emperor Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus (see Constantine), who transferred the Roman capital there.

ancient capital of Persia, founded 6c. B.C.E. by Darius the Great; from Greek, literally "city of the Persians," from Perses "Persians" (see Persian) + -polis "city" (see polis). The modern Iranian name for the place is Takht-e-jamshid, literally "throne of Jamshid," a legendary king whose name was substituted when Darius was forgotten. Related: Persepolitan.

Turkish name of Constantinople; it developed in Turkish 16c. as a corruption of Greek phrase eis tan (ten) polin "in (or to) the city," which is how the local Greek population referred to it. Turkish folk etymology traces the name to Islam bol "plenty of Islam." Greek polis "city" has been adopted into Turkish as a place-name suffix -bolu.

city in Spain, famous from 16c. for its sword-blades of fine temper; the place name is Celtic, from tol "hill."

"town or city having corporate privileges of local self-government," 1789, from French municipalité, from municipal (see municipal).