Etymology: < roam v. Compare earlier roaming n.

Etymology: Origin uncertain. Probably ultimately < the name of Rome Rome n., after a Latin or Romance word for a pilgrim; compare Middle French romier pilgrim (see roamer n.) and post-classical Latin Romeus Roman (6th cent.), pilgrim to Rome (10th cent.) and also ( < post-classical Latin Romeus ) Anglo-Norman rumiu, rumi and Old French romi (13th cent. or earlier), Old Occitan romieu (13th cent.), Catalan romeu (second half of the 13th cent.), Italian romeo (early 13th cent.), all in sense ‘pilgrim’. Alternatively, perhaps the same word as rame v.¹ (see discussion below).The rhyme with home in quot. a1393 at sense 1aα. has been taken to suggest descent from an unattested earlier Middle English *rāme (perhaps represented by rame v.¹; perhaps compare also ramble v.), but this rhyme could be on either Middle English open or close ō (compare discussion by W. W. Skeat in Trans. Philol. Soc. (1903) 100 and by E. J. Dobson Eng. Pronunc. 1500–1700 (ed. 2, 1968) II. §154 n.6). The variation between forms with the reflex of Middle English open and close ō suggested by the β. forms and γ. forms would have parallels among other Romance loans showing o before a labial (see again E. J. Dobson Eng. Pronunc. 1500–1700 (ed. 2, 1968) II. §154), and the absence of any northern or Scots variants with a or ai argues against development from earlier *rāme. (No cognates which might support the existence of such a word have been found in other West Germanic languages, although Old Icelandic reima (reflexive) to be haunted (itself of uncertain origin) has been compared.)