"rum" definition, meaning, and origin

Adjective

Fine, excellent, valuable.
- having a rum time
Strange, peculiar.
- a rum idea; a rum fellow
- "Lor, Noah!" said Charlotte, "What a rum creature you are! Why don't you let the boy alone?" - 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard...
- [H]e stared after Pynsent stupidly, and pronounced to the landlord over the counter that he was a rum one. - 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 27, in The History of Pendennis. […],...

Origin

From the earlier form rome (“good”, slang); possibly of Romani origin; compare rom.

Noun Entry 2

A spirit distilled from various preparations of sugarcane, particularly fermented cane sugar and molasses.
- ... I went aboard the Fellowship of 100 and 70 Tuns a Flemish bottom, the Master George Luxon of Bittiford in Devonshire, several of my friends came to bid me farewell, among the rest Captain Thomas Wannerton who drank...
- That the former orders concerning rum, sugar, and hammocks be still in force, viz., one half to be forfeited to the King, and one half to the informer. - 1661 July 3, Orders of the Governor and Council of Jamaica in...
- The Royal Navy used to issue a rum ration to sailors.
Coordinate Terms: grog
1. (countable) A serving of rum.
  - Jake tossed down three rums.
  Coordinate Terms: grog
2. (countable) A kind or brand of rum.
  - Bundaberg is one of my favourite rums.
  Coordinate Terms: grog
A similar spirit distilled from similar preparations of sugarbeets, sorghum, etc.
A strange person or thing.
A country parson.
- No company comes / But a rabble of tenants, and rusty dull rums. - 1729, Jonathan Swift, The Grand Question Debated of Hamilton's Bawn:

Origin

In common use since at least 1654, of uncertain origin. Theories include: * that it is a shortening of rumbullion or rumbustion, names for rum also attested in the Caribbean during the mid-17th century, * that it derives from rummer, from Dutch roemer, * that it is from a Romani word for "strong, potent" which is (perhaps) the source of ramboozle and rumfustian (however, these drinks were not originally made with rum), * that it derives from rum ("fine, good") or from the last syllable of Latin saccharum (given the harsh taste of earlier rum, this origin is now considered unlikely)