List of English words of Romani origin explained
These are words in the English language which potentially come from Romani.
- chav – an anti-social youth (from chavi "child")[1] [2]
- cosh – a weapon, truncheon, baton (from košter "stick")
- cove – British-English colloquial term meaning a person or chap (from kova "that person")
- dick – detective (potentially from dik "look", "see" and by extension "watch")[3]
- gadjo (masc) or gadji (fem) – a non-Romani
- nark – a police informer (from nāk "nose")
- pal – friend (from phral "brother")
- posh – fancy, upper-class (possibly from a Romani term for money)
- Romanipen – the spirit of being Romani, "Romani-ness"
- shiv – an improvised knife or similar weapon (from chivomengro "knife")[4]
- wonga – Cockney slang for money (from angar "coal")[5]
Notes and References
- News: UK | 'Asbo' and 'chav' make dictionary . . 8 June 2005 . 2022-04-07 . https://web.archive.org/web/20051110104408/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4074760.stm . 10 November 2005 . live .
- Web site: Chav . Quinion . Michael . World Wide Words . 2022-04-07 . https://web.archive.org/web/20060415024903/http://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-cha2.htm . 15 April 2006 . live .
- Web site: Issue of September 3, 2004 . Morris . Evan . 2004-09-03 . The Word Detective . 2022-04-07 . They trace the noun "dick" in the "detective" sense to the 19th century (around 1864) criminal underworld slang verb "to dick," meaning "to watch." This "dick" came in turn from the Romany (the language of the Gypsies) word "dik," meaning "to look, to see." .
- Book: Johns Hopkins University . JSTOR (Organization) . Modern Language Notes . 99. 49 . 2022-04-07 . 1934 . Johns Hopkins Press.
- Web site: Issue of September 3, 2004 . Morris . Evan . 2004-09-03 . The Word Detective . 2022-04-07 . ..."wonga" is British slang for "money," drawn from the word for "coal" in Romany, the language of the Gypsies, possibly from the practice of Gypsies collecting coal fallen from passing trains. .
