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roman

Etymology and origin of the French word roman

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Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1125, Grant mal fist Adam (ronmanz)
Inherited from
Latin *romanice via Old French
Ultimate origin
Latin (Rōmānus)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ʁɔ.mɑ̃/[1]

Forms

roman (feminine romane, masculine plural romans, feminine plural romanes)[1] Old French ronmanz (about 1125), romanz (about 1135), romant (13th–17th centuries); roman from the late 12th century, the ⟨s⟩ of romans having been taken for a plural.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French romanz, inherited from Vulgar Latin *rōmānicē (“in the Roman way, in the vernacular”), an adverb from Rōmānus (“Roman”) (see romain),[2][5][6][4][7][1] used in opposition first to Latin and then to the customs and language of the Franks, considered barbarian.[5][6][4] Littré notes the thematic ⟨s⟩ of the Old French word, matched in Spanish.[8]

Old Occitan romans was borrowed as Italian romanzo and Spanish romance; romance, of the same ultimate origin, came into French through Spanish.[9][1] The adjective “Romance;[6][1] Romanesque” is either borrowed from Latin Rōmānus or derived from the noun (Encyclopédie, 1765).[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

About 1125 the sermon Grant mal fist Adam says it was written en ronmanz, in the vernacular of northern France, for those who are not lettered;[2][5] Wace (1130–40) put his source de latin en romans.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

By extension, about 1140 it named a narrative in French verse, not in Latin, adapting the legends of Latin and then of Celtic literature, where marvellous and gallant adventures dominate: Wace's Brut (1155) and the Roman de la Rose (1225–30).[2][5] The sense later passed to such narratives in prose (14th century) and lasted into the 17th century for poems of fabulous adventures; in the 16th century the word already partly meant the modern novel.[5][10] Figuratively it is an invented story, a tissue of untruths (Guez de Balzac, 1652).[2]

In linguistics roman was the supposed stage between spoken Late Latin and Old French (1690), then the Romance languages as a whole (1870), and in architecture roman “Romanesque” is found by 1820.[5][4][11] romancier (15th century) and romanesque (Sorel, 1627) follow its literary sense.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1125 – Ronmanz “the vernacular”.[2]
  • c. 1140 – A narrative in French verse.[5]
  • 1155 – Cest romanz, Wace's Brut.[2]
  • Late 12th century – The form roman.[2]
  • 1627 – romanesque, Sorel.[3]
  • 1652 – “A tissue of untruths”, Guez de Balzac.[2]
  • 1765 – The adjective “Romance”, Encyclopédie.[6]
  • 1820 – Architecture romane.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A novel: roman policier, detective novel, roman noir, roman à clef, roman-photo, nouveau roman.[1][4]
  2. (literary history) A medieval narrative in the vernacular, in verse or prose: le Roman de la Rose, roman courtois.[2][5]
  3. An improbable story, (colloquial) a very long text.[2][1]
  4. (linguistics) The Romance vernacular from which Old French grew.[4][5]

Adjective

  1. (linguistics) Romance: les langues romanes.[1][2]
  2. (art) Romanesque.[1][11]

Word family

  • romancier
  • romancer
  • romanesque
  • roman-photo
  • téléroman
  • romain
  • romance
  • romand
  • romanche

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  4. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 452b
  8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  11. ^ a b c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Roman.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/roman. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

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