Prof. Theo Vennemann: Rome – the City and the Name

Rome – the City and the Name 

The name of the city of Rome, Latin Roma (with long o), has no generally accepted etymology. In particular, the popular association with the old name of the Tiber river, Rumon, is rejected by specialists on phonological grounds. All other attempts to find a derivation for the name have sought it within Indo-European. But a close look at the Mediterranean world in the early first millennium BCE (7-5-3 – Rom kroch aus dem Ei!) makes a non-Indo-European, namely Semitic origin appear more likely. In my presentation I will propose a new etymology, with close attention paid to both the sound and the referent of the name.