Other forms: royals
Royal means belonging to a king or queen. The royal family, a royal visit, royal approval.
In Britain it is also a title granted to institutions — the Royal Mail, the Royal Society, the Royal Navy — and it is granted by the monarch, which is why not every old institution has it. As a noun, a royal or the royals means members of the royal family, and it is informal and journalistic. Note the royal we, meaning a monarch speaking in the plural, and royalties, which are payments to an author or inventor and come from the same word by way of rights granted by the crown.
1adjectiveroyalBelonging to a king or queen.
“It is a royal residence and always has been.”
2adjectivegivenGiven a title by the monarch.
“The society received its royal charter in 1662.”
3nounmemberA member of a royal family.
“Two royals were there and neither spoke.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
royal is a relation to monarchy.
Latin regalis comes from rex, a king — the same root as regal, regent and reign. Royal arrived through French and regal through Latin directly, which is why English has two words meaning the same thing at different heights.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₃reǵ-
Latin
rēgālis
Old French
roial
Middle English
royal
English, today
royal
Built from
From Middle English royal, from Old French roial (Modern French royal), from Latin rēgālis, from rēx (“king”). a doublet of regal and real and ariary and riyal. Cognate with Spanish real, Italian reale, Catalan reial. Displaced native cynelīċ.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA