# A Roman what? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 31, 2023, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365 "2023-10-31T13:35:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/21 "2023-11-02T14:13:54Z")
I got most of it but I still have trouble figuring out what a ground floor romantic might be. ground floor is an idiom for “in at the beginning”. Maybe if I knew who the composer was? In music, the Romantic era began around 1830 … who is this guy? Or, the idiom was misused, as is so regrettably common, and is supposed to mean something quite different. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365/22 "2023-11-02T14:26:41Z")
Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829–1869), from New Orleans, the toast of Paris. I found the link in the Wikipedia article on his piano piece “[Le Bananier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Bananier_(Gottschalk)),” which made the curious connection with Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances from _[Prince Igor](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/borodins-prince-igor-overture-beautiful-but-fraught/959566)_. The author is not to blame, but the website editor who scanned the text from a book into digital format and didn’t copy-edit thoroughly: [http://thompsonian.info/gottschalk-legend-offergeld.html](http://thompsonian.info/gottschalk-legend-offergeld.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-roman-what/992365.md?page=1)