• Rome

    Pronunciation

    • UK, enPR: rōm, IPA: /rəʊm/, (archaic, dialectical) IPA: /rum/
    • US, enPR: rōm, IPA: /roÊŠm/
    • Rhymes: -əʊm
    • Homophones: roam

    Alternative forms

    Origin

    From Middle English and late Old English Rome, from Old English Rōm, from Late Latin Latin Rōma ("Rome", "Constantinople"), from Classical Latin Rōma ("Rome"). In Roman mythology, the name was said to derive from Romulus, one of the founders of the city and its first king.

    The name appears in a wide range of forms in Middle English, including Rom, Room, Roome, and Rombe as well as Rome; by early modern English, it appeared as Rome, Room, and Roome, with the spelling Rome occurring in Shakespeare and common from the early 18th century on. The final spelling was influenced by Norman, Old French, and Middle French Rome.

    Oxford English Dictionary. "Rome, n."

    Full definition of Rome

    Proper noun

    Rome

    (plural Romes)
    1. A city on the Tiber River on the Italian peninsula, the capital of a former empire and of the modern region of Lazio and nation of Italy
    2. Ancient Rome; the former Roman Empire; Roman civilization
    3. The Holy See, the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, particularly prior to the establishment of the Vatican City in the 19th century
    4. The Church of Rome, the Roman Catholic Church generally
    5. (archaic) Constantinople, the "New Rome"; the Byzantine Empire
      • 1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, 13Yet haue the Sarasins attempted both Romes; they haue besieged Constantinople, and haue wasted... the Sea coasts of Italy.
      • 1999, G. Vallée, Shaping of Christianity, X 203The weakening of the two Romes created the space for the emergence of both the Holy Roman Empire of the Franks and the Islamic Empire.
    6. (obsolete) Moscow, the "Third Rome"
      • 1823, Robert Lyall, The Character of the Russians and a Detailed History of Moscow, 28Moscow is a third Rome, say these historians, and a fourth shall never be.
      • 1945, Nicholas Zernov, Russians & their Church, 51 translating Filofei of Pskov, letter to Vasili IIIThe Church of old Rome fell for its heresy; the gates of the second Rome, Constantinople, were hewn down by the axes of the infidel Turks; but the Church of Moscow, the Church of the new Rome, shines brighter than the sun in the whole universe.

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