These are words in the English language which potentially come from Romani.
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (May 2013) |
They trace the noun "dick" in the "detective" sense to the 19th century (around 1864) criminal underworld slang verb "to dick," meaning "to watch." This "dick" came in turn from the Romany (the language of the Gypsies) word "dik," meaning "to look, to see."
..."wonga" is British slang for "money," drawn from the word for "coal" in Romany, the language of the Gypsies, possibly from the practice of Gypsies collecting coal fallen from passing trains.