This is correct. The term "citizen" meant "city-denizen." Someone who dwells in a city.
How came the term to mean member of a nation rather than member of a city? Where did that transition occur, and why did it occur?
I don't mean to be coy, but I have studied this particular point quite a lot. I want to see if you follow the clues to the same place I did.
Oh, and from what I have discovered, the transition from "City Denizen" to "Nation Member" didn't occur in the English language until the 18th century. So far as I can tell (from studying English dictionaries of that era), in English the word didn't come to mean "member of a nation" until around the 1760s. Prior to that time, it still meant "City-dweller."
For example.
Cit. [contracted from Citizen] 1. An inhabitant of a city. 2. A pert low towniman.
Citizen. f.[citoyen Fr.] A Freeman of a City. Raleigh 2. A townman; not a gentleman. Shakefp3. an Inhabitant. Dryden
https://books.google.com/books?id=bXsCAAAAQAAJ&q=citizen#v=snippet&q=citizen&f=false>
How came the term to mean member of a nation rather than member of a city? Where did that transition occur, and why did it occur?I don't mean to be coy, but I have studied this particular point quite a lot. I want to see if you follow the clues to the same place I did.
The cities and towns had not consolidated into the modern nations back when. The people identified with their local area, be what it may. As nations formed, the people increasingly identified with their nation. Over considerable time, the meaning of citizen applied to the new political communities of nations.
The original roots of the word would be found in Old French and Middle English, and Latin. In those days of yore, all legal documents of England, such as Magna Charta, were written in Latin.
Anglo-Norman citesain, Middle English citeseyn, citezein, Old French citeain, citaien, citeien, Old English burhsittend, ceasterware.
English, a Germanic language, has adopted terms from other languages and includes a very significant mix of Old English, German, and French. Much French influence entered via the Norman conquest.
The term came to apply to national political communities as language evolved and the word took on a new meaning.