▪ I. roman, n.3 S. Afr.
Also roo(i)man.
[Afrikaans, f. rooi red + man man.]
1. A marine fish, Chrysoblephus laticeps, belonging to the family Sparidæ and having reddish skin. Also attrib.
| 1790 E. Helme tr. Le Vaillant's Trav. Afr. I. ii. 22 Among those [fish] in greatest estimation, they distinguish the rooman, a red fish [etc.]. 1801 [see steenbrass]. 1804 R. Percival Acct. Cape of Good Hope 43 The most common is the Roman fish... It is of a deep rose colour and of the perch kind. 1893 [see kingklip]. 1957 S. Schoeman Strike! iii. 32 It is universally known as ‘roman’, although some anglers and fishermen call it ‘rooi roman’ (red roman). 1971 Cape Argus 14 May 14 John Hughes shot a roman of 4,1 kg—which is equal to the South African spearfishing record. |
2. A large nocturnal sun-spider belonging to the order Solifuga (or Solpuga) and having a sandy-coloured body.
| 1905 F. Purcell in Flint & Gilchrist Sci. in S. Afr. III. iii. 178 The large nocturnal..species of Solpuga..are variously known by the name of Romans, Jagd-spinne⁓koppen (Hunting Spiders) or Haar-sheerders (Hair cutters). 1966 E. Palmer Plains of Camdeboo xiv. 233 On the farm we know..the nocturnal species [of spiders] as Rooimans or Red Men, and of these latter I can neither think nor speak except in capitals. |
▪ II. ‖ roman, n.4
(rɔmɑ̃)
[Fr.: see romaunt n. and a.]
A romance; a novel. Esp. in phrases: roman à clef, a novel in which actual persons are introduced under fictitious names; roman à thèse, a novel that seeks to further a viewpoint or expound a theory; roman d'aventure = romance n. 2; roman de geste = chanson de geste; roman expérimental, a realistic novel based upon deterministic theories of human nature of an alleged scientific character; also fig.; roman fleuve, a sequence of self-contained novels; roman noir, a Gothic novel, a shocker, a thriller; roman policier, a story of police detection.
| 1765 [see romaunt n. and a. 1]. 1868 Roman de geste [see chanson 2]. 1884 W. James Will to Believe (1897) 173 Like the friends of M. Zola, we pique ourselves on our ‘scientific’ and ‘analytic’ character, and prefer to be cynical, and call the world a ‘roman expérimental’ on an infinite scale. 1889 E. Dowson Let. 5 May (1967) 75 We..may..evolve a brilliant roman. 1893 H. James Let. 23 Jan. in P. Gunn Vernon Lee (1964) x. 138 Her books of fiction are a tissue of personalities of this hideous roman-à-clef kind. 1905 Roman d'aventure [see lai1]. 1913 G. Turquet-Milnes Influence of Baudelaire v. v. 250 In his [sc. Arthur Machen's] works we again meet the distrust of nature from the documentary point of view—the distrust of ‘Romans à Clef’. 1928 A. Christie Mystery of Blue Train x. 81, I see, Madame, that you have a roman policier. 1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 26 Feb. 151/4 The ‘Radcliffian’ novel, or roman noir, as the French call it. Ibid. 31 Dec. 1054/4 The study aims at giving a detailed analysis of the German criticism of Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle and his theory of the roman expérimental. 1934 Webster, Roman à thèse. 1936 Times Lit. Suppl. 15 Feb. 121/3 Those great romans-fleuves whose unnumbered volumes have no other purpose than to show us to ourselves as we appear. 1940 H. G. Wells Babes in Darkling Wood 5 They pass at last..into more or less honest fact telling, into ‘historical reconstruction’, the roman à clef, biography, history and autobiography. 1954 K. Tillotson Novels of Eighteen-Forties i. 3 The roman à thèse is already establishing itself. 1955 Times 4 Aug. 10/3 The Typewriter is not great Cocteau, but it is fine melodramatic fare and strangely compelling emotionally. It has wit and good dialogue, but this is essentially a tragedy set in the frame of a roman policier and the answer to the mystery remains unanswered and unguessable until the very last scene. 1957 Encycl. Brit. I. 945/1 The inter⁓influence of French and English literature can be studied in the Breton romances and the romans d'aventure even better than in the epic poetry of the period. 1959 Listener 3 Dec. 1007/3 The re-creation of the medieval roman..in The Story of Reynard. 1965 Ibid. 27 May 799/1 David in Silence..is also in its way a roman à thèse. 1965 Observer 5 Sept. 21/5 The film is a roman policier. 1966 J. Carter in Glover & Greene Victorian Detective Fiction p. xiv, The early roman policier writers. 1971 J. Pope-Hennessy A. Trollope xvii. 364 We might claim..that An Eye for an Eye initiated the series of Trollope's romans noirs. 1972 V. Gielgud Black Sambo Affair xxvii. 208 A fine collection of romans policiers. 1974 Bookseller 15 June 2696/3 He [sc. Anthony Powell] obviously feels reasonably protective towards the maestro of the roman fleuve. 1977 New Yorker 24 Oct. 184/2 A roman à clef whose skeleton key would seem to be the unsavory case of Alice Crimmins and her two murdered children. 1978 Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Dec. 1405/5 Success takes him to Hollywood, and there you feel a roman à clef, based on Puzo's profitable frustrations in movieland, is intended. |