What is the origin of 'sleep tight'?
Read moreOne of the mysteries of the English language finally explained.
noun
A member of the indigenous population of Romania and Moldova, claiming descent from the inhabitants of the Roman province of Dacia.
- ‘Turks, Slavs, Albanians, Greeks, Vlachs, Jews, and Roma often lived together in multiethnic communities.’
- ‘Here, living side by side, are Turks, Greeks, Gypsies, Albanians, Jews, Vlachs, Serbs, as well as the Macedonians who form the greater part of the population.’
- ‘The majority of the country's population of 3,360,000 consists of Albanians in addition to assorted minorities: Greeks, Bulgarians, Gypsies, Macedonians, Serbs, Jews, and Vlachs.’
- ‘They identify themselves as Vlachs or old Romanians and differentiate themselves distinctly from Roma, although they are aware of a certain relationship.’
adjective
Relating to the Vlach.
- ‘I'll admit to some prejudice on this topic, since my grandparents were ethnic Vlach immigrants from southeastern Albania.’
- ‘Many, perhaps most, of these troops from the frontier were Orthodox Vlach or Serb immigrants from Ottoman-ruled Bosnia.’
Origin
From a Slavic word meaning ‘foreigner’, from a Germanic word related to Old English Wælisc (see Welsh). Compare with Wallachia.
