Ragusa

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A historic city located in southern Croatia, renowned for its well-preserved medieval architecture and stunning coastal scenery
2. A significant cultural and tourist destination on the Adriatic Sea, famous for its beautiful Old Town and rich cultural heritage
3. An important urban area that serves as a key administrative center, attracting visitors for its picturesque views and historical sites

Etymology: Ragusa is the Italian name for the city now called Dubrovnik, on the Croatian coast of the Adriatic, and the name is older than anything the city's modern residents call it. The Italian form comes from the Latin "Ragusia", and linguists generally trace the root back to a word in the ancestor of Albanian, "rāguša", meaning "grape". That suggests the name was first attached to the settlement by Romance speakers who heard a local Albanian-speaking name for the place and adapted it, so the city's Italian-language name may preserve a vine-related word from a language that still survives in the Balkans today, as modern Albanian "rrush". The name spread into English as a fixed label for a city that long held a Latin-speaking, Italian-influenced identity. Its medieval rulers, the Republic of Ragusa, governed a trading state that for centuries rivaled Venice, and that is why the Italian form stuck in English-language writing even after the city came under other rulers and took its Croatian name in the twentieth century.

Synonyms: Dubrovnik