Rome
Pronunciation
- UK, enPR: rÅm, IPA: /rəʊm/, (archaic, dialectical) IPA: /rum/
- US, enPR: rÅm, IPA: /roÊŠm/
- Rhymes: -əʊm
- Homophones: roam
Origin
From Middle English and late Old English Rome, from Old English RÅm, from Late Latin Latin RÅma ("Rome", "Constantinople"), from Classical Latin RÅma ("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)- 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
- circa 1150, The Blickling Homilies, 191Ic wille gangan to Rome.
- circa 1368, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Legend of Good Women, 1869Ne never was ther kyng in Rome tovn Syn thilke day.
- circa 1380, Geoffrey Chaucer translating Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, I iv 441Now I am remewed fro þe Citee of rome almost fyue-hundreþ þousand pas.
- circa 1599, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar, I ii 157When could they say (till now) that talk'd of Rome,
That her wide Walles incompast but one man?
Now is it Rome indeed, and Roome enough
When there is in it but one onely man. - 1866 December 8, 'Filius Ecclesiæ', Notes & Queries, "Rome:Room", 456 1Within the last thirty weeks I have heard the word Rome pronounced Room by several old-fashioned people in the north of Ireland, some of my own relations among the number. On remonstrating with one of these, she said, "It was always Room when I was at school (say about 1830), and I am too old to change it now."
- Ancient Rome; the former Roman Empire; Roman civilization
- 1594, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, I i 82These that suruiue, let Rome reward with loue.
- 1711, Alexander Pope, "An Essay on Criticism", 39Learning and Rome alike in Empire grew,
And Arts still follow'd where her Eagles flew;
From the same Foes Tyranny and Superstition, at last, both felt their Doom,
And the same Age saw Learning fall, and Rome. - 1820, Lord Byron, Marino Faliero, V iA wife's dishonour unking'd Rome for ever.
- The Holy See, the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, particularly prior to the establishment of the Vatican City in the 19th century
- circa 1050, Orosius, Hist., II iv 44Ond nu ure cristne Roma bespricð þæt hiere wealles for ealdunge brosnien, nales na for þæm þe hio mid forheriunge swa gebismrad wære swa Babylonia wæs. Ac heo for hiere cristendome nugiet is gescild.
- 1537 January 26, T. Starkey, letterThe wych you perauenture wyl impute to thys defectyon from Rome.
- circa 1597, William Shakespeare, The firſt Part of Henry the Sixt, III iiHenry Beaufort. Rome shall remedie this
. Roame thither then. - The Church of Rome, the Roman Catholic Church generally
- circa 1596, William Shakespeare, The life and death of King Iohn, V ii 70King Iohn hath reconcil'd Himselfe to Rome.
- (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.
- (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.