that it is from aRomani word for "strong, potent" which is (perhaps) the source oframboozle andrumfustian (however, these drinks were not originally made with rum),
that it derives fromrum ("fine, good") or from the last syllable ofLatinsaccharum (given the harsh taste of earlier rum, this origin is now considered unlikely)[5]
... I went aboard theFellowship of 100 and 70 Tuns a Flemish bottom, the MasterGeorge Luxon ofBittiford inDevonshire, several of my friends came to bid me farewell, among the rest CaptainThomas Wannerton who drank to me a pint ofkill-devilaliasRhum at a draught ...
1661 July 3, Orders of the Governor and Council of Jamaica inColonial Papers: America and West Indies (1880),§123:
That the former orders concerningrum, sugar, and hammocks be still in force,viz., one half to be forfeited to the King, and one half to the informer.
The Royal Navy used to issue arum ration to sailors.
The young men had exchanged few observations; but in crossing Union Square, in front of the monument to Washington—in the very shadow, indeed, projected by the image of thepater patriae—one of them remarked to the other, “It seems arum-looking place.” “Ah, very odd, very odd,” said the other, who was the clever man of the two.
^In that year,Connecticut ordered confiscation of "whatsoever Barbados liquors, commonly called rum, kill devil and the like". See Charles A. Coulombe,Rum (2005),→ISBN.
1 When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite, the corresponding "indefinite" form is used. 2 The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.
While most or all instances of standardherum can be replaced withrum in the vernacular, compounds that are inherently colloquial will typically sound odd whenherum is used in them. These will appear in writing withrum or not at all.
rum in Géza Bárczi,László Országh,et al., editors,A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962.Fifth ed., 1992:→ISBN.
Thisetymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at theEtymology scriptorium. Particularly: “CompareHindiकुसुम(kusum) andIndonesiankesumba. The sound change*-s- > /r-/ is regular; compare the cases ofrái,rết,rắn, etc. Couldn't find anything Nôm-related so probably a recent loan?”
