n. — Newfoundland, potentially derogatory
a person from St. John's, especially in contrast to someone from an outport.
Type: 3. Semantic Change — Townie is commonly used in a number of contexts to refer to a person from a large city or town, as opposed to someone from the countryside (see AND, s.v. "towny"). In Newfoundland, this term is used specifically in reference to people from St. John's and can be seen as an analogue for people from the outports (see, for example, baywop or noddy). Townie likely made its way to the Newfoundland vocabulary through its English (OED-3, s.v. "towny" (B1)) or Irish settlement roots.
See also Gage-5, s.v. "townie"(2), which is marked "Nfld.".