Romani words

The traditionally wandering people who speak Romani, a language related to northern Indian languages such as Hindi and Sanskrit reflecting their origin, have gone by many different names. In English they were known as Gypsies [M16th], originally in the form gipcyan formed from Egyptian, as they were popularly supposed to come from Egypt. Other terms that have entered English include Bohemian [L16th] used by the French in the mistaken belief they were from Bohemia, Gitano [M19th] from Spanish, Tzigane [M19th] from Hungary, and Zingaro [E17th] from Italian. But the preferred term is now Roma, the plural of Romani rom ‘man’.

Probably the best-known English expression to come from Romani is pal [L17th], from the Romani for ‘brother, mate’ descended from Sanskrit bhrātṛ. The rather old-fashioned cove [M16th] for a person is also Romani, from kova ‘thing, person’.

Many of the words adopted from Romani are informal or slang, which is not surprising given the outsider status often given to the Roma. Yet another word for ‘man’ is mush (pronounced like push), used in English from the mid 19th century to mean a person’s face or mouth or as an informal term of address. Cushty, meaning ‘very good’, has been around since the 1920s, but was popularized by the TV comedy Only Fools and Horses in the 1980s. It derives from Romany kushto or kushti ‘good’—the spelling was probably influenced by cushy, meaning ‘easy, undemanding’ (see indian words). Wonga [L20th] for ‘money’ is probably also Romani, from wongar ‘coal’, which in British Romani has been extended to mean ‘money’ as well. Stir [M19th] for ‘jail’ is probably a shortening of the Romani term for prison sturbin, while chiv ‘blade’ is probably the source of shiv or chiv(e)[17th] for a knife or razor used as an offensive weapon.

See also naff, nark.