Dictionary WikiRomani Words in English: Pal, Lollipop, and More
A First Look
English slang has picked up words from many communities, and Romani is one of its liveliest sources. The Romani people, also known as Roma and historically called "Gypsies" (a name many people reject as offensive, since it comes from the old mistaken idea that Roma came from Egypt), have lived in Europe for centuries. Their language, Romani, belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of languages and traces back to the Indian subcontinent.
Over roughly 700 years of contact in Europe, Romani words passed into English through ordinary conversation rather than official channels. Traders, travelers, entertainers, metalworkers, horse dealers, and people on the margins of settled society all helped carry words across community lines. That is why many Romani-linked English words feel informal, vivid, and conversational. Words such as pal, cushy, nosh, lollipop, and bosh may have Romani connections, even though most speakers never think of them as borrowed vocabulary.
Where Romani Comes From
Romani is descended from languages related to Sanskrit in northwestern India. Linguists generally connect the ancestors of the Roma with a migration out of India around 1,000 years ago. As Romani-speaking groups moved through Persia, the Byzantine Empire, and then into Europe, the language kept an Indian core while taking in words from Persian, Greek, Turkish, Slavic languages, and others encountered along the way.
In Britain, a mixed variety often called Anglo-Romani, Angloromani, or Pogadi Chib developed. Speakers increasingly used English grammar while preserving many Romani words. This made borrowing easier: English speakers could hear Romani vocabulary inside largely English sentence patterns. Work and social contact also mattered. Romani communities were associated with horse trading, seasonal labor, metalworking, fortune-telling, and traveling entertainment, all of which created practical everyday contact with English speakers.
How Pal Became English
Pal is probably the best-known English word with a Romani source. It is usually linked to Romani phral or pal, meaning brother or friend, and ultimately to Sanskrit bhrātṛ, meaning brother. The word reached English in the 17th century through contact with Romani communities and became a common informal word for a friend.
English later built new forms from it, including pally, meaning friendly, and the expression "pen pal." The borrowing is now so well absorbed that many dictionaries list it simply as an English word, with its Romani history easy to miss. That is what happens when a loanword becomes fully natural: speakers use it without sensing that it once came from somewhere else.
Romani Roots in Casual English
Cushy, meaning easy or comfortable, may come from Romani kushti or kushto, meaning good, with an earlier connection to Persian khush, meaning pleasant or happy. If someone says they have landed a "cushy role" with short hours and good pay, the word carries that sense of comfort and ease. It began as British slang but is now widely understood in other varieties of English too.
Mush, used for a mate, fellow, or man, comes from Romani mush, meaning man. Bosh, meaning nonsense, is sometimes credited to Romani, although Turkish boş, meaning empty, is another possible source. Lollipop has been tentatively connected with Romani loli phabai, meaning red apple, but that explanation remains disputed. Nosh, meaning food, a snack, or eating, may have a Romani link through nash, though Yiddish is also often suggested.
Romani Influence on British Slang
Romani influence is especially visible in British slang. Rum, in the sense of odd or suspicious, as in "that was a rum remark," may be connected with Romani rom, meaning man or husband. Cosh, a weighted club or the act of hitting someone with one, may come from Romani kosh, meaning stick. Wonga, a slang word for money, has also been proposed as Romani in origin.
Divvy, meaning foolish in one use and to divide up in another, may be related to Romani divano, meaning foolish. Char, British slang for tea, came through Romani from Hindi chai, showing how older Indian vocabulary could be preserved and later passed into English. Gaffer, meaning boss or foreman, has sometimes been linked with Romani, although its history is not simple. The size of this slang layer reflects long contact between Romani speakers and English-speaking communities in Britain.
Trade, Cash, and Market Words
Several English slang words for money have been associated with Romani. Lolly, meaning cash, may come from Romani loli, meaning red, perhaps in reference to copper coins. Dosh is sometimes said to have Romani roots, though the evidence is uncertain. Wonga is another money word that has been linked to Romani. These proposed borrowings make sense in a setting where buying, selling, bargaining, and mobile trade brought communities into regular contact.
Chav, a British slang term for a young person of low social status, has been connected by some writers to Romani chavi, meaning child. That etymology is disputed, and some Romani people object to the association. Dodgy and hooky, meaning suspicious, stolen, or not quite legitimate, have also been given possible Romani associations. Market life, dealing, and the practical language of trade helped create conditions for shared vocabulary.
Words for People and Behavior
English slang also includes Romani-linked words used to describe people. Gadjo, sometimes appearing as gorger, refers to a non-Romani person and has become better known through books, film, and other media about Romani culture. Chavi or chavvy, meaning child, appears in some English dialects shaped by historical contact with Romani speakers. Minger, British slang for an unattractive person, has also been proposed as having a Romani source.
Barmy, meaning crazy or foolish, has been tentatively connected to Romani barmi, but that origin is not established. Rum, meaning strange or odd, appears in phrases such as "a rum old tale" and may derive from Romani rom. Many of these personality and character words are difficult to trace with certainty because they spread through speech, not formal writing. The path is plausible, but the paper trail is often thin.
Eating, Travel, and Daily Life
Nosh, as mentioned above, is one of the food-related words that may have a Romani connection. Romani life in Britain has also shaped English ideas and vocabulary around travel, outdoor cooking, seasonal work, and horses, even when a particular word was not directly borrowed from Romani. The English word caravan comes from Persian, but in British English it has long been strongly associated with Romani traveling culture.
Romani food traditions, including stews cooked outdoors in cast iron pots and dishes such as hedgehog stew, have influenced the way English speakers imagine camp cooking and life on the road. Modern language around camping and even "glamping" can carry indirect links to romanticized images of Romani travel. The word vardos, referring to traditional Romani wagons or caravans, is used in English heritage, craft, and historical contexts.
London Slang and Romani Contact
London street speech and Cockney rhyming slang developed in a crowded multilingual setting. Romani vocabulary mixed there with words from Yiddish, Hindi, Italian, and other languages spoken in the city. In the East End of London, Romani communities lived near immigrant and working-class groups, creating the kind of close social contact that helps slang travel quickly.
Possible Romani items in Cockney and London slang include tatty, meaning worn out, and moola, meaning money and possibly connected with Romani mula. Various underworld terms have also been suggested as Romani-derived. Pinning down the source of any single Cockney word can be hard because the speech community was so mixed. A word might have several believable origins, or it may have been reinforced by more than one language at the same time.
Romani Vocabulary in Polari
Polari was a coded language used from the 18th century onward by British gay communities, theatrical performers, sailors, fairground workers, and other groups who often needed privacy or protection. It drew from Romani as well as Italian, Yiddish, backslang, and other sources. Romani fitted naturally into this mix because it was already associated with mobile communities and social outsiders.
Romani-origin words in Polari include chavi, meaning child, and mush, meaning man or face, along with other items. Some Polari words later moved into wider English through comedy, theatre, radio, and popular entertainment. In those cases, a word could travel from Romani into Polari, then into performance slang, and finally into everyday English.
Why These Words Matter
The Romani imprint on English has a deep cultural weight. Roma have endured centuries of persecution, exclusion, and discrimination across Europe, including the Porajmos, the Romani Holocaust, during World War II. At the same time, Romani speech has quietly added familiar words to English. The fact that most English speakers do not recognize pal or cushy as Romani-linked words shows both how completely they have entered English and how easily the culture behind them can be overlooked.
Learning these origins is one small way to push back against stereotypes. Romani communities have contributed to the languages and cultures of the countries where they have lived for generations. English owes them words for friendship, comfort, eating, trade, strangeness, and human character — the kind of vocabulary people use in ordinary life every day.
What These Borrowings Show
Romani words in English often hide in the most casual parts of the language. When someone calls a friend a pal, describes an easy shift as cushy, grabs a quick nosh, or dismisses a claim as bosh, they may be using vocabulary shaped by a long journey from India through Persia, Turkey, the Balkans, and Europe into British streets and beyond. These words show how informal contact can leave a lasting mark on a language, and how Romani creativity and resilience live on in everyday English speech.