''Köping'' was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

denomination for a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

since

the Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, derived from the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

word ''

kaupang Kaupang was a Norse term for ''market-place'' composed of kaup- (buy) and angr (fjord, harbor), hence "buy fjord" or "buy harbor" (similar to the literal translation of Copenhagen). Today, it is generally used as a name of the first town-like m ...

''. The designation was officially abolished with the municipal reform of 1971, when Sweden was subdivided into the Municipalities of Sweden (currently amounting to 290). As present-day

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

was once a part of Sweden, the

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

word ''kauppala'' has the same meaning. In modern Finnish, the word ''kaupunki'', borrowed from the Old Norse word ''kaupang'', is the main word for town and city. Swedish ''köping'' and the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

''chipping'' are also

cognates In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical eff ...

as is the Norwegian word ''kjøpstad'' and the Danish toponymical suffix ''Købstad, -købing''.

Sweden

History

In 1863 the first local government acts were implemented in Sweden. There were two acts, one for Stad (Sweden), cities and one for rural areas. Of the around 2,500 municipalities, 89 had city rights and thus had the right to call themselves ''stad'' (city). Under the "rural" act there were also eight localities given the status of ''köping'', which positioned them between a rural municipality and a town (see municipalköping). The number of localities designated as ''köping'' rose dramatically during the 20th century and reached its peak in 1959, when they were 95. Many new settlements during the industrialization of Sweden, as well as some of the suburbs in the metropolitan areas, first received the title of ''köping'' and it was also made part of their name (such as Linköping or Nyköping). They later grew further and received town privileges, but kept the ''köping'' ending of their names. See the list below. It has been found that a vast majority, nearly 70%, of such designated market-towns lie within an area of in south-central Sweden, especially in the highly economically productive region immediately west and south of Stockholm, in Södermanland County, Södermanland, Örebro County, Örebro, Östergötland County, Östergötland, and Jönköping County, Jönköping counties. A large-scale merger of Swedish municipalities in 1971 removed the distinctions between towns, market towns and rural municipalities. Many of the former market towns are now seats of municipalities. In contrast to the term ''stad'', ''köping'' is seldom used in everyday speech today.

Toponyms containing the word ''köping''

Municipal Seats

*Linköping (104,232 inhabitants) *Jönköping (89,396) *Norrköping (87,247) *Nyköping (29,891) *Lidköping (25,644) *Enköping (21,121) *Köping, Sweden, Köping (17,743) *Falköping (16,350) *Söderköping (6,992)

Minor Localities

*Malmköping (1,977) *Köpingsvik (599) *Äsköping (342)

Localities/Parishes in the Diocese of Lund

*Löddeköpinge (6,290) *Hököpinge (1,105) *Dalköpinge *Kyrkoköpinge *Sireköpinge *Stora Köpinge:sv:Stora Köpinge socken

Köping titles issued 1863–1959

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koping Populated places in Sweden, Koping Market towns in Sweden, Former subdivisions of Sweden da:Flække