In international institutions, the term used to refer to the extermination of Roma and Sinti people is ‘Porrajmos’ or ‘Porajmos’ – a word that in Romanes means ‘devouring’ and refers to the desecration of life. The term was proposed by Ian Hancock, a Roma professor at the University of Austin, Texas, to refer to the persecution and extermination which occurred during Nazi-Fascism. The term ‘Porrajmos’ was at the centre of an intense debate that also took place within the Holocaust Memorial Council of the Washington museum of the same name, on the possible comparison between Porrajmos and the Shoah. Hancock’s initiative was responsible for the international recognition of the extermination of Roma and Sinti people as a campaign of racial elimination. A few years after the introduction of the term Porrajmos, an intense debate has developed within Roma and Sinti communities internationally about the use of this term and the most correct choice of words relating to the subject of extermination. Porrajmos is not used by all communities, as for some it also means ‘rape’ and is considered a vulgar word that should not be uttered. Other terms used in communities to refer to this particular genocide are: Samudaripen (massacre), Baro Merape (great extermination), or Sintegre Laidi (suffering of the Sinti) or KaliTraš (black terror).