românicos

Românicos is a term used in Portuguese and other Romance-language contexts to describe items related to the Romance languages or to the peoples and cultures formed around those languages. It is the plural form of românico and can function as both a noun and an adjective.

In linguistics and philology, românicos denotes the Romance languages, a language family descended from Latin after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. This family includes Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian, Catalan, Galician, and others. The term can also refer to speakers or communities that use these languages, though more common terms are falantes de línguas românicas or povos românicos.

In art and architectural history, românico is the standard term for the Romanesque style, a medieval European style roughly dating from the 10th to the early 13th centuries. It is characterized by semicircular arches, thick walls, robust piers, small windows, and decorative sculptural programs, often organized into arcades and capitals.

The two senses arise independently: a linguistic-cultural sense and an architectural-historical sense. The context usually clarifies which meaning is intended.