List of English words of Romani origin
These are words in the English language which come from Romani.
- This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
- Chav - a member of a youth subculture (from cha = "child")[1]
- Cosh - a weapon, truncheon, baton (from the Romani word cosht = "stick")
- Cushy - easy, good, fine (from the Romani word kusht or kushti)
- drag - to wear clothing carrying symbolic significance commonly associated with the opposite gender (possibly from indraka = "dress")
- drag - a car, to race a car as in drag racing
- Pal - a friend, from the Romani word phral, meaning brother
- Gadjo or Gadjie - a non-Romani
- Lollipop - a type of candy, from the Romani "loli phabai", meaning red apple
- Moosh - colloquial (especially in Kent) meaning a man, a bloke, from Romani moosh meaning man.
- Nark - a police informer (from nāk, nose)
- Romanipen - the spirit of being Romani, "Romani-ness"
- Shiv - an improvised knife or similar weapon (possibly from chivomengro = "knife")
- Skip (waste collecting container like on building sites) - from Romani word skip meaning basket
- Togs - clothes (colloquial) from the Romani word togs meaning clothes[2]
See also
- Polari - slang used by several British subcultures, which includes numerous terms from Romani
References
- ↑ "UK | 'Asbo' and 'chav' make dictionary". BBC News. 8 June 2005. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
- ↑ Johns Hopkins University; JSTOR (Organization) (1934). Modern Language Notes 49. Johns Hopkins Press. p. 99. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
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