roe

See also: Roe, ROE, roé, róe, and rö

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: rō, IPA^(key): /ˈɹəʊ/
• (US) enPR: rō, IPA^(key): /ˈɹoʊ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊ
• Homophone: row (in some senses only)

Etymology 1

From Middle English rowe, rowne, roun, rawne, from Old English *hrogn (“spawn, fish eggs, roe”), from Proto-Germanic *hrugnaz, *hrugną (“spawn, roe”), from Proto-Indo-European *krek- (“(frog) spawn”). Cognate with Dutch roge (“roe”), German Low German Rögen (“roe”), German Rogen (“roe”), Danish rogn, ravn (“roe”), Swedish rom (“roe”), Icelandic hrogn (“roe”), Lithuanian kurkulaĩ (“frog spawn”), Russian кряк (krjak, “frog spawn”).

Alternative forms

• roan, rone, roun, rown, rawn, round (dialectal)
• roughne, roughnes (obsolete)

Noun

roe (uncountable)

1. The eggs of fish.
2. The sperm of certain fish.
3. The ovaries of certain crustaceans.

Quotations

• 1988 : It was quite flavourless, except that, where its innards had been imperfectly removed, silver traces of roe gave it an unpleasant bitterness. — Alan Hollinghurst, The Swimming Pool Library, (Penguin Books, paperback edition, 40)

Synonyms

• (sperm): milt

Derived terms

• hard roe
• soft roe
• white roe

Translations

eggs of fish

• Arabic: يَحْمُور‎ m (yaḥmūr)
• Armenian: ձկնկիթ (hy) (jknkitʿ)
• Azerbaijani: kürü (az)
• Belarusian: ікра́ f (ikrá)
• Bulgarian: хайвер (bg) m (hajver)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 魚子 (zh), 鱼子 (zh) (yúzǐ), 魚卵 (zh), 鱼卵 (zh) (yúluǎn), 鮞 (zh), 鲕 (zh) (ér)

• Czech: jikra (cs) f, jikry pl
• Danish: rogn (da) c
• Dutch: kuit (nl) m
• Esperanto: frajo (eo)
• Estonian: mari (et), kalamari
• Faroese: rogn n
• Finnish: mäti (fi)
• French: œufs de poisson pl, frai (fr) m
• Galician: míllaras f, bragales m, ovas f
• Georgian: ხიზილალა (xizilala)
• German: Rogen (de) m
• Greek: αυγοτάραχα (avgotáracha)
• Hungarian: ikra (hu)
• Icelandic: hrogn n
• Italian: uova (it)
• Japanese: 卵 (ja) (たまご, tamago), 魚卵 (ぎょらん, gyoran)
• Karakalpak: уўылдырық
• Kazakh: уылдырық (wıldırıq)
• Korean: 알 (ko) (al), 물고기알 (mulgogial), 곤이 (鯤鮞, koni), 어란 (ko) (魚卵, eoran)
• Kyrgyz: икра (ikra), урук (ky) (uruk)
• Lao: ໄຂ່ປາ (khai pā)
• Latin: caprea f
• Latvian: ikri

• Lithuanian: ikrai pl
• Macedonian: икра f (ikra)
• Maori: hua, koua, tōhua, pē, kouaha, pewa ika
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: rogn (no) m, f

  Nynorsk: rogn f

• Old Prussian: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: اشپل‎ (fa) (ešpel)
• Polish: ikra (pl) f
• Portuguese: ovas f pl
• Romanian: icre f pl
• Russian: икра́ (ru) f (ikrá)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: икра f, мрест m, f

  Roman: ikra (sh) f, mrest (sh) m, f

• Slovak: ikra (sk) f
• Slovene: ikra f
• Spanish: huevas (es) f pl
• Swedish: rom (sv)
• Tagalog: bihud
• Tajik: тухм (tg) (tuxm), тухми моҳӣ (tuxmi mohī)
• Tatar: уылдык (tt) (uıldıq)
• Thai: ไข่ปลา (kài bplaa)
• Tibetan: ཉ་གོང (nya gong)
• Turkish: balık yumurtası (tr), oğulduruk (tr)
• Ukrainian: ікра́ f (ikrá)
• Uzbek: ikra (uz), uvuldiriq (uz)
• Vietnamese: trứng cá (vi)
• Volapük: fitanögem, (sperm) fitaspärmat

See also

• caviar
• egg

Etymology 2

From Middle English ro, roa, from Old English rā, rāha, from Proto-Germanic *raihą (compare Saterland Frisian Räi, Dutch ree, German Reh), from *róyko-, from Proto-Indo-European *rey- (“spotted, streaked”) (compare Irish riabh ‘stripe, streak’, Latvian ràibs ‘spotted’, Russian рябо́й (rjabój, “mottled fur”).

Noun

roe (plural roe or roes)

1. Short for roe deer.
   • 1814, Walter Scott, chapter 12, in Waverley:

     "[...] and we may, God willing, meet with a roe. The roe, Captain Waverley, may be hunted at all times alike; for never being in what is called pride of grease, he is also never out of season, though it be a truth that his venison is not equal to that of either the red or fallow deer. But he will serve to show how my dogs run [...]"

2. A mottled appearance of light and shade in wood, especially in mahogany.

Derived terms

• roebuck

Translations

roe deer — see roe deer

Anagrams

• EOR, ORE, Ore, Ore., o'er, ore, öre, øre

---

Dutch

Etymology

Shortened form of roede, with regular loss of -de. From Proto-Germanic *rōdō.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -u

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

roe f, m (plural roes, diminutive roetje n)

1. Alternative form of roede
2. bundle of twigs, especially in Sinterklaas folklore

---

Estonian

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic [Term?]. Cognate to Finnish ruoja and Votic rooja (“dirt, mud, dirtiness, dirty”).

Noun

roe (genitive rooja, partitive rooja)

1. faeces, excrement

Declension

Declension of roe (type tühi)

	singular	plural
nominative	roe	roojad
genitive	rooja	roojade
partitive	rooja	roojasid / rooje
illative	roojasse / rooja	roojadesse / roojesse
inessive	roojas	roojades
elative	roojast	roojadest
allative	roojale	roojadele
adessive	roojal	roojadel
ablative	roojalt	roojadelt
translative	roojaks	roojadeks
terminative	roojani	roojadeni
essive	roojana	roojadena
abessive	roojata	roojadeta
comitative	roojaga	roojadega

---

Middle French

Etymology

Old French roe < Latin rota.

Noun

roe f (plural roes)

1. wheel (cylindrical device)

Descendants

• French: roue

---

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From the noun ro

Verb

roe (imperative ro, present tense roer, passive roes, simple past and past participle roa or roet, present participle roende)

1. (often reflexive, with seg) to calm (ned / down), to soothe

References

• “roe” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

---

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

• roa

Etymology

From the noun ro

Verb

roe (present tense roar, past tense roa, past participle roa, passive infinitive roast, present participle roande, imperative ro/roe)

1. (often reflexive, with seg) to calm (ned / down), to soothe

References

• “roe” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

---

Old French

Etymology

Latin rota.

Noun

roe f (oblique plural roes, nominative singular roe, nominative plural roes)

1. wheel (cylindrical device)

Descendants

• French: roue

---

Spanish

Verb

roe

1. Informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of roer.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present indicative form of roer.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present indicative form of roer.