Etymology Borrowed from Romani roma, plural of rom (“man, husband, Romani man”). The latter probably comes from Sanskrit डोम्ब (ḍomba, “lower-caste person working as a wandering musician”), from Sanskrit डमरु (ḍamaru, “drum”), which may have been borrowed from a Dravidian language. Folk etymology pointed to a legend that the ethnic group were an exiled people from Roman Imperial times. The other major categories of words for the Roma are cognates of Gypsy (words related to Egypt) and cognates of tzigane (words derived from Greek); see those entries for more information.
1
A Rom; a member of the Romani people.
My genes would best be described as a melting pot – my mother is part Bulgarian Roma, part Romanichal (English Romany), and my dad is part Romanichal, part Irish Traveller – thus, it was hardly surprising when I was born a blue-eyed milk bottle.2013 October 25, Filip Borev, “I was a pale Roma baby – it's always been a family joke that I was stolen”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 12 Aug 2022:
Roma
adj
Etymology Borrowed from Romani roma, plural of rom (“man, husband, Romani man”). The latter probably comes from Sanskrit डोम्ब (ḍomba, “lower-caste person working as a wandering musician”), from Sanskrit डमरु (ḍamaru, “drum”), which may have been borrowed from a Dravidian language. Folk etymology pointed to a legend that the ethnic group were an exiled people from Roman Imperial times. The other major categories of words for the Roma are cognates of Gypsy (words related to Egypt) and cognates of tzigane (words derived from Greek); see those entries for more information.