Why is it called Urban Myth, What is the purpose of urban?
Although the word “urban” means city, it is often used to describe something as modern. Urban legends mostly originate in the city and are fairly new. Most of the time, you won’t find things like gods, magic, and monsters in urban myths; Things you find in urban myths are little facts such as “If you drop a fire extinguisher in a fire, it will explode” or “If you fall off a running horse and hold on, your pants will catch fire”. The dictionary definition of urban legend is “a modern story of obscure origin and with little or no supporting evidence that spreads spontaneously in varying forms and often has elements of humor, moralizing, or horror”.
Actually Urban Myth is a fairly new term. It was originally Urban legend but was changed because a legend is always a tale but a myth may or may not be true in whole or in part. It is fairly new because urban (city) living is fairly new.At the beginning of the First World War most of the population of the USA lived on farms or in small towns whose economies were based on the farms. The word was formed to describe things people “know” happened in the city as opposed to what the rural inhabitants know as in “folk lore”. For instance when J.Mathers died in Vietnam the actor Jerry Mathers was listed as dead in Variety. He was still alive but his career was dead. Abe Vigoda has to continually refute reports that he is dead. These are Urban Myths.
