roman1
/ˈrəʊmən
/(also roman fish)
noun (plural same or romans) South African
A red or pink South African sea bream.
- Chrysoblephus and other genera, family Sparidae: several species, in particular C. laticeps.
Origin
Late 18th century: from Afrikaans rooi 'red' + man 'man'.
Roman2
/ˈrəʊmən/adjective
1Relating to ancient Rome or its empire or people: a site rich in finds from Bronze Age and Roman settlements...
- England had also been part of the Roman empire, but here Roman culture had been less firmly implanted than in Gaul or Spain.
- As routes to distant places, they were often rather indirect, and, as though to draw attention to the break with the Roman past, sometimes ran parallel to Roman roads but did not use the latter.
- Part of the visible prestige of a great Roman aristocrat had long been the number of people dependent upon him.
1.1Relating to medieval or modern Rome: the Roman and Pisan lines of popes
2 dated short for Roman Catholic. the Roman Church’s instructions to its clergy
3Denoting the alphabet (or any of the letters in it) used for writing Latin, English, and most European languages, developed in ancient Rome: he substituted the Roman alphabet for the Arabic in written Turkish...
- Vernacular and academic orthography are therefore often sharply contrasted, the latter having strict conventions for transliterating Arabic into Roman script.
- The obscurity about the major ethnie of Dark Age Scotland was more to do with the fact that the eloquence of their complex sculptured stones was not transliterated into Roman script.
- The Roman system of scripts ran from around 30 bc to ad 600 and was to influence the subsequent history of scripts, with certain elements being periodically revived.
4 (roman) (Of type) of a plain upright kind used in ordinary print, especially as distinguished from italic and Gothic: each complete type family in bold, italic, bold italic and roman...
- Today's Guardian sports a designer-friendly logo in blue italics and black roman font.
- Baskerville gave his name to the roman typefaces based on his designs in current usage.
- Yeah, I try and make the chapters about three pages long (in word, times new roman font, size 12).
noun
1A citizen or soldier of the ancient Roman Republic or Empire: the Romans had a formidable army...
- The Romans used the ideas of the Ancient Greeks to implement their own engineering plans.
- With Carthage defeated, the Romans became the most powerful Mediterranean state.
- There can be little doubt that the road network built by the Romans throughout their empire was a major achievement.
1.1A citizen of modern Rome.Who knows what the Romans would make of this open-plan Italian café bar in the heart of bustling Lan Kawi Fong but we love it for its drink, food, friendly staff and street-front locale.
2 dated A Roman Catholic.
3 (roman) [mass noun] Roman type: it is signed in roman rather than his usual cursive script...
- They use contrastive typefaces for distinct purposes, such as bold-face type for headwords, roman for definitions, italics for abbreviated codes and specimen words and phrases, and small capitals for cross-references.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French Romain, from Latin Romanus, from Roma 'Rome'.