what is the meaning of the word gotham
Gotham City "Gotham" was a nickname for New York City that became popular in the nineteenth century; Washington Irving had first attached it to New York in the November 11, 1807 edition of his Salmagundi,[13] a periodical which lampooned New York culture and politics. Irving took the name from the village of Gotham, Nottinghamshire, England, a place inhabited, according to folklore, by fools.[14][15] The village's name derives from Old English gāt 'goat' and hām 'home', literally "homestead where goats are kept",[16] and is pronounced /ˈɡoʊtəm/ GOHT-əm, like the word goat (cf. Chatham, /ˈtʃætəm/ CHAT-əm, a similar name where the letters th represent a "t" sound followed by a silent "h" rather than a "th" sound). The Joker references this etymology in Detective Comics #880, in which he tells Batman that the word means "a safe place for goats".[17] In contrast, "Gotham" as used for New York has a different pronunciation by analogy to other words spelled with "th" and is pronounced as /ˈɡɒθəm/ GOTH-əm,[18] like the word Goth.
Gotham City Gotham City, like other cities in the DC Universe, has varied in its portrayals over the decades, but the city's location is traditionally depicted as being in the state of New Jersey. In Amazing World of DC Comics #14 (March 1977), publisher Mark Gruenwald discusses the history of the Justice League and indicates that Gotham City is located in the state of New Jersey.[1]