While the context appears to determine the sense of this hapax as ‘red’, no etymon can be found to support this. Two possible interpretations present themselves, though neither entirely satisfactory. First, the word could be an adjectival derivative of the noun romeny (derived from the toponym Romanie¹), which is a ‘type of sweet red wine of Greek origin’. Although the reference to ‘red’ may seem relevant for the Ancren¹ citation, the metonymic use of a type of wine to represent a colour is not attested anywhere else. Second, the word may be a corruption of the more common ruvent (‘red’). However, even with a reinterpretation of the minims of m as iv or vi, and an emendation of i as t, the resulting forms – either ruvientez or ruiventez – are not otherwise attested in Anglo-Norman or Continental French.