Etobicoke, former borough, part of the former municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, southern Ontario, on Lake Ontario; incorporated as a city 1983. It is a manufacturing and distribution center with many corporate offices. Humber College (1967) is here. The borough was formed in 1967, when the township of Etobicoke (incorporated 1851) was merged with the towns of New Toronto and Mimico and the village of Long Branch. In 1998 Etobicoke and five other metropolitan municipalities were combined into a new and enlarged City of Toronto. The community was first surveyed in 1795. The name Etobicoke is derived from an aboriginal term meaning “place where the black alders grow.” Population 302,973 (1986); 328,719 (1996).
