patteran

P3A1T1T1E1R1A1N1

noun

Any of several coded signs left along a road or on a non-Roma house by one Rom to another. The most common ones consist of crossed sprigs (usually of different trees or shrubs) indicating, for example, a direction travelled.

OriginRomani patrin →
Scrabble 10
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Meanings

nounpatteran (plural patterans)

plural patterans · alternative patrin

  1. Any of several coded signs left along a road or on a non-Roma house by one Rom to another. The most common ones consist of crossed sprigs (usually of different trees or shrubs) indicating, for example, a direction travelled.

    They began to come upon from time to time small cairns of rock by the roadside. They were signs in gypsy language, lost patterans.

    2006, Cormac McCarthy, The Road
    1 more example

    Follow the Romany Patteran / Sheer to the Austral Light, / Where the besom of God is the wild South wind, / Sweeping the sea-floors white.

    1890, Rudyard Kipling, The Gipsy Trail, Boston: Alfred Bartlett, published 1909, verse 8

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
indication

Origin

  1. Romanipatrin“leaf”
  2. Englishpatteran

From Romani patrin (“leaf”), perhaps specifically from an inflected form like Vlax Romani pateryánsa.

More words from Romani

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

patteran. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/patteran

MLA

“patteran.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/patteran. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “patteran,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/patteran.

Source: patteran on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.