• IPA: /ɹʌm/

In common use since by at least 1654, of uncertain origin. Theories include:

• that it derives from rum ("fine, good"), or from the last syllable of Latin saccharum (given the harsh taste of earlier rum, the first theory is now considered unlikely),
• that it is a shortening of rumbullion or rumbustion, or
• that it is from a Romany - word for "strong, potent" which is (perhaps) the source of ramboozle and rumfustian (but these drinks were not originally made with rum)
• that it derives from rummer, from Dutch roemer

rum

1. (uncountable) A distilled spirit derived from fermented cane sugar and molasses.

   The Royal Navy used to issue a rum ration to sailors.

   1. (countable) A serving of rum.

      Jake tossed down three rums.

   2. (countable) A kind or brand of rum.

      Bundaberg is one of my favourite rums.

   Coordinate term: grog
2. (obsolete, slang) A strange person or thing.
3. (obsolete, slang) A country parson.
   • 1729, Jonathan Swift, The Grand Question Debated of Hamilton's Bawn:

     No company comes / But a rabble of tenants, and rusty dull rums.

• (spirit) rumbullion (obsolete)
• (odd person) odd duck, strange fish, weirdo; see also Thesaurus:strange person
• (odd thing) abnormality, deviant, outlier; see also Thesaurus:anomaly

• baba au rhum

• French: rhum
• German: Rum
• Italian: rum
• Portuguese: rum
• Russian: ром
• Spanish: ron, romo (Belize)

From the earlier form rome, slang for "good"; possibly of Romany - origin; compare rom.

rum (comparative rummer, superlative rummest)

1. (obsolete) Fine, excellent, valuable. [16th c.]

   having a rum time

2. (UK, informal, dated) Strange, peculiar. [18th c.]

   a rum idea; a rum fellow

   • 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC ↗:

     "Lor, Noah!" said Charlotte, "What a rum creature you are! Why don't you let the boy alone?"

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 27, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC ↗:

     [H]e stared after Pynsent stupidly, and pronounced to the landlord over the counter that he was a rum one.

   • 1878, Henry James, An International Episode‎:

     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 the pater patriae—one of them remarked to the other, “It seems a rum-looking place.”
     “Ah, very odd, very odd,” said the other, who was the clever man of the two.

• (fine, excellent, valuable) exceptional, pukka, top-notch; see also Thesaurus:excellent
• (strange, peculiar) bizarre, queer, rummy; see also Thesaurus:strange

rum (plural rums)

1. (British, colloquial, dated) Any odd person or thing.

Shortening of rummy.

rum

1. (rare) The card game rummy.

From Middle English and Old English, from Proto-West Germanic *Rūmu, from Proto-Germanic *Rūmō under influence from Late Latin Rōma, from Latin Rōma.

1. (obsolete or archaic) Alternative form of Rome, the capital in Italy.

From Seljuk trk-oat - and Ottoman Turkish روم, from Arabic رُوم, from Pahlavi 𐭧𐭫𐭥𐭬, from gkm Ῥωμανία, from Latin Romanus, from Roma ("Rome").

1. (historical) An eyalet in Ottoman Empire.
2. (historical) A former polity in Anatolia, a Seljuk sultanate.
3. (archaic) Synonym of Anatolia and the Byzantine Empire in historical Turkish contexts.

• (Ottoman eyalet) Sivas

1. Alternative form of Rùm, an island of the Inner Hebrides.

rum (uncountable)

1. (computing) Init of w:real user monitoring