Etymology

Saint Petersburg

Today it means: A federal city and federal subject of Russia, known between 1914 and 1924 as Petrograd and between 1924 and 1991 as Leningrad; the former capital of Russia, from 1713 to 1728 and 1732 to 1918. Full definition →

Russian Санкт-Петербу́рг ← German Sankt Petersburg
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The story

  1. German · derived fromSankt Petersburg“Saint Peter's City”
  2. Russian · calque ofСанкт-Петербу́рг
  3. English todaySaint Petersburg

Calque of Russian Санкт-Петербу́рг (Sankt-Peterbúrg) equivalent to Saint Peter + -s- + -burg, from German Sankt Petersburg (“Saint Peter's City”), referring to Saint Peter the Apostle and alluding to its founder Tsar Peter the Great. Doublet of Peterborough.

Words from the same roots

GermanSankt Petersburg all →

Petrograd

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.