romance languages
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
Those languages which are the immediate offspring of Latin, as the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “romance languages” mean?
Those languages which are the immediate offspring of Latin, as the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French.
Is “romance languages” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.