*SET-U

English word origin

Etymology of Romeo

Borrowed from Italian Romeo, from Ancient Greek Ῥωμαῖος (Rhōmaîos, “Roman”).

1 source sectionExtended source reportWiktionary original ↗
In this entry · 1 source sections

The source etymologies

Wiktionary via Kaikki / Wiktextract

The source reports below are imported and unreviewed by *SET-U. Separate numbered origins and differing source variants are preserved; agreement within this extraction is not independent corroboration.

Unnumbered source etymology

Original entry ↗
name

A male given name from the Romance languages. · One of the main characters of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: the ardent lover of Juliet. · A town in Conejos County, Colorado. · An unincorporated community in Marion County, Florida.

noun

A boyfriend. · A man who has a reputation for being a great lover or very romantic. · A spy specialised in seducing persons of interest, in particular a man targeting women. · A womanizer.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

Borrowed from Italian Romeo, from Ancient Greek Ῥωμαῖος (Rhōmaîos, “Roman”).

Relationships mentioned by the source

These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.

This page abbreviates 2 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

{
  "templates": [
    {
      "name": "bor+",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "it",
        "3": "Romeo"
      },
      "expansion": "Borrowed from Italian Romeo"
    },
    {
      "name": "der",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "grc",
        "3": "Ῥωμαῖος",
        "4": "",
        "5": "Roman"
      },
      "expansion": "Ancient Greek Ῥωμαῖος (Rhōmaîos, “Roman”)"
    }
  ],
  "links": [
    [
      "Romeo",
      "Romeo#Italian"
    ],
    [
      "Ῥωμαῖος",
      "Ῥωμαῖος#Ancient_Greek"
    ]
  ],
  "references": [],
  "descendants": [],
  "lexical": [
    {
      "pos": "name",
      "glosses": [
        "A male given name from the Romance languages.",
        "One of the main characters of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: the ardent lover of Juliet.",
        "A town in Conejos County, Colorado.",
        "An unincorporated community in Marion County, Florida."
      ],
      "tags": [],
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      "sourceRecordOrdinal": 209541
    },
    {
      "pos": "noun",
      "glosses": [
        "A boyfriend.",
        "A man who has a reputation for being a great lover or very romantic.",
        "A spy specialised in seducing persons of interest, in particular a man targeting women.",
        "A womanizer."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "derogatory"
      ],
      "recordId": "d9274d42464272d1586922455277ac4c1d95a5d4b78c8cb4e803dc40acd3a362",
      "rawRecordSha256": "7af6e5bc87734d73c73b3e26e9be0de865416cc698e7585ced30a68ed8384488",
      "sourceRecordOrdinal": 209542
    }
  ],
  "omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
    "templates": 0,
    "links": 0,
    "references": 0,
    "descendants": 0,
    "lexicalRecords": 0,
    "lexicalSenses": 2,
    "glosses": 0
  }
}

Where this record stops

This page does not supply an independently verified sound-change sequence, first-use manuscript or complete family tree unless a cited analysis explicitly establishes one. Missing detail here is a limit of this record—not a claim that humanity knows nothing more.

An older meaning does not determine what a word must mean today. Follow the sources, preserve disagreements, and keep ancestry separate from interpretation.

Contribute located evidence for Romeo →

Source and snapshot

Imported from Wiktionary contributors; extracted by Tatu Ylonen / Wiktextract / Kaikki.org. Selected fields are reformatted and grouped; wording, source identity and etymology sections are retained. CC-BY-SA-4.0 applies to the imported source material.

Dump: 2026-10-01 · Extracted: 2026-10-30. These are snapshot dates, not the word’s first attestation or the page’s revision date.

Source entry and bibliography ↗Wiktionary revision history ↗Acquisition and rights ledger
Machine-source provenance
Source SHA-256
5ff2c072f8099f2d2ce484bd6957bf179f046d2ad37bc36555edf8bb84cb5291
Import run
73216b9a9b78ed3830994bf853103716f5a4dc57099e371e9f8fdc468facca26
Permanent entry ID
w-Um9tZW8