Etymograph

English

Roma

Roma comes from Romani rom ‘man, husband, Romani man’.

  1. Romanimodernrom‘man, husband, Romani man’
  2. Romani, derivedmodernromaplural of rom
  3. Englishearliest quotation 2013Roma

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Romanimodernrom‘man, husband, Romani man’
  2. Romani, derivedmodernromaplural of rom
  3. Englishearliest quotation 2013Roma

Earliest quotation: 2013, Filip Borev, I was a pale Roma baby – it's always been a family joke that: “My genes would best be described as a melting…”

The story

The latter probably comes from Sanskrit डोम्ब (ḍomba, “lower-caste person working as a wandering musician”), from Sanskrit डमरु (ḍamaru, “drum”), which may have been borrowed from a Dravidian language. Folk etymology pointed to a legend that the ethnic group were an exiled people from Roman Imperial times.folk etymology The source marks this as unproven or a folk etymology. Quoted, not asserted. The other major categories of words for the Roma are cognates of Gypsy (words related to Egypt) and cognates of tzigane (words derived from Greek); see those entries for more information.

Every English word from Romani rom

Another origin of Roma

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CERōmulusuncertain
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CERōma
  3. Italianc. 1300–presentRoma‘Rome’
  4. Englishtodaysame form

Today it means

name A nomadic people with origins in India, the Romani.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Romani rom / Roma

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