List of English words of Romani origin

These are words in the English language which potentially come from Romani.

• chav () – an anti-social youth (from chavi "child")
• cosh () – a weapon, truncheon, baton (from koÅ¡ter "stick")
• cove () – British-English colloquial term meaning a person or chap (from kova "that person")
• dick () – detective (potentially from dik "look", "see" and by extension "watch")
• gadjo (masc) or gadji (fem) – a non-Romani
• nark () – a police informer (from nāk "nose")
• pal () – friend (from phral "brother")
• posh () – fancy, upper-class (possibly from a Romani term for money)
• Romanipen – the spirit of being Romani, "Romani-ness"
• shiv () – an improvised knife or similar weapon (from chivomengro "knife")
• wonga () – Cockney slang for money (from angar "coal")

References