romanize

English

Alternative forms

• romanise (mainly British)
• Romanize, Romanise

Etymology

Roman +‎ -ize

Verb

romanize (third-person singular simple present romanizes, present participle romanizing, simple past and past participle romanized)

1. (transitive) To put letters or words written in another writing system into the Latin (Roman) alphabet.

   Synonyms: Latinize, transliterate

   The author romanizes Chinese names using the Wade–Giles system rather than the Pinyin system.

   • 1912, Lord William Gascoyne-Cecil, chapter 10, in Changing China,‎, New York: D. Appleton, page 132:

     A new system has been invented by which Chinese can be written in our letters as pronounced. This is called by the rather uncouth name of “Romanised.”

   • 2015, James Lambert, “Lexicography as a teaching tool: A Hong Kong case study”, in Lan Li, Jamie McKeown, Liming Liu, editors, Dictionaries and corpora: Innovations in reference science. Proceedings of ASIALEX 2015 Hong Kong, Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, page 147:

     Some of the Chinese students had difficulty comprehending the need to Romanize the Chinese etymons.

2. (transitive, historical, usually capitalized) To bring under the authority or influence of Rome.
   • 1658, Thomas Browne, chapter 2, in Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial‎, London: Hen. Brome, page 28:

     But since this custome was probably disused before their Invasion or Conquest, and the Romanes confessedly practised the same, since their possession of this Island, the most assured account will fall upon the Romanes, or Brittains Romanized.

3. (transitive, intransitive, usually capitalized) To make or become Roman in character or style.
   • 1680, John Dryden, Ovid’s Epistles translated by several hands‎, London: Jacob Tonson, Preface:

     […] perhaps he has Romaniz’d his Grecian Dames too much, and made them speak sometimes as if they had been born in the City of Rome, and under the Empire of Augustus.

   • 1790, Thomas Pennant, Of London‎, London: Robt. Faulder, page 8:

     Long before this period, it [London] was fully romanized, and the customs, manners, buildings, and arts of the conqueror adopted.

4. (transitive, intransitive, usually capitalized) To make or become Roman Catholic in religion (by conversion), character or style.

   Synonym: Latinize

   • 1661, John Corbet, The Interest of England in the Matter of Religion‎, London: George Thomason, Section 11, p. 50:

     […] the more primitive times of Protestantism were more leaning to that which Romanizing spirits have called Puritanism.

5. (transitive, obsolete) To fill with Latin words or idioms.

   Synonym: Latinize

   • 1668, John Dryden, Of Dramatick Poesie‎, London: Henry Herringman, page 50:

     perhaps too, he [Ben Jonson] did a little to much Romanize our Tongue, leaving the words which he translated almost as much Latine as he found them: wherein though he learnedly followed the Idiom of their language, he did not enough comply with ours.

Derived terms

• romanization

Translations

References

• “romanize” in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2004.
• NOAD, 2nd ed.

Anagrams

• armozine

Portuguese

Verb

romanize

1. inflection of romanizar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative