English · Slang Historical

romany

Preserved but no longer current.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

A gipsy, or the gipsy language; the speech of the Roma or Zincali.—Spanish Gipsy. "Can you patter ROMANY?" i.e., can you talk "black," or gipsy lingo?

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

người du mục, ngôn ngữ du mục

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1874 (Victorian)

Where it’s used: Origin British & Irish English

Sources & notes

Historical definition reproduced from Hotten’s The Slang Dictionary (1874, public domain; Project Gutenberg #42108, retrieved 2026-07-31). Reflects the attitudes of its era.

Topics: Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “romany” mean?

A gipsy, or the gipsy language; the speech of the Roma or Zincali.—Spanish Gipsy. "Can you patter ROMANY?" i.e., can you talk "black," or gipsy lingo?

Is “romany” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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