A nickname for New York City, originally used by Washington Irving. Also refers to the fictional city that is Batman's home in DC Comics.
From Gotham, a village in Nottinghamshire, England, known in medieval folklore for its wise fools who pretended to be simple to avoid King John's taxes. Irving used it satirically for New York in 1807, implying New Yorkers were either fools or pretending to be fools.
The transformation of 'Gotham' from a sleepy English village known for clever peasants to the dark, crime-ridden metropolis of Batman shows how names can completely reinvent their meanings. Washington Irving's satirical nickname for New York has become so iconic that many people don't realize it originally implied the city's inhabitants were either fools or too clever by half.
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