1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Precinct

PRECINCT (from Lat. praecingere, to encircle, enclose, surround, prae and cingere, to gird), an enclosure, a space within the boundaries, marked by walls or fences or by an imaginary line, of a building or group of buildings, especially used of such a space belonging to a cathedral or other religious building. The word is frequently used, indefinitely, of the neighbourhood or environs of a place or building. In the United States of America it is applied to various minor territorial divisions or districts, for electoral or judicial purposes. In some of the states they correspond to the “township” as the principal subdivision of the “ county.”