We don’t think any of those three senses of “gypsy” are offensive, though undoubtedly some could be used in a dismissive manner. (3) An unlicensed, nonunionized, or independent operator, particularly a trucker or cab driver but also including plumber and other trades. (2) A person with a career or way of life that’s itinerant or unconventional, especially a part-time or temporary college faculty member or a performer in the chorus line of a theatrical production. (1) Someone who’s free-spirited or doesn’t live in one place for long. Most date from around the mid-20th century, and here we’ll paraphrase the many definitions in standard dictionaries: to a brunette.” All those uses have died out.īut since then “gypsy” (also spelled “gipsy”) has acquired several more meanings, none of them pejorative. In later use, Oxford adds, “gypsy” (by this time lowercased) was used playfully rather than contemptuously for a woman, “and applied esp. In the 1600s it was used to mean a man who was “a cunning rogue,” the dictionary says, and for a woman who was “cunning, deceitful, fickle, or the like.” and was then believed to have come from Egypt.”īut the word very soon acquired transferred meanings, the OED says. The OED defines this ethnic sense of “Gypsy” as “a member of a wandering race (by themselves called Romany), of Hindu origin, which first appeared in England about the beginning of the 16th cent. ” (From Martins Months Minde, 1589, an attack by an unknown writer on the pseudonymous pamphleteer known as Martin Marprelate.) “Hee wandring … in the manner of a Gipson … was taken, and trust vp for a roge. “It is ordayned agaynste people callynge themselves Egypcyans, that no such persons be suffred to come within this realme.” (From The Newe Boke of Justyces of the Peas, 1538, by the judge and legal scholar Anthony Fitzherbert.) “The Kinges Maiestie aboute a twelfmoneth past gave a pardonne to a company of lewde personnes within this Realme calling themselves Gipcyans for a most Shamfull and detestable murder.” (From a letter written by Thomas Cromwell on Dec. And many early appearances of “Gypsy” in English were highly pejorative because, as OED citations show, these itinerant foreigners were often viewed with contempt and mistrust, suspected of crimes, and driven away. So the “Gypsies” were mislabeled from the start, since they didn’t come from Egypt. The Romani language is descended from Sanskrit, in which romá is the plural of rom (man or husband). A genome study in Current Biology, December 2012, shows that the founding population of the Roma people originated in northern India 1,500 years ago and rapidly migrated into Europe through the Balkans, with some genetic input along the way from the Near or Middle East. The earliest form of the word in English, which the Oxford English Dictionary dates to the 1530s, was “Gipcyan,” an abbreviated version of “Egyptian.” At that time, as John Ayto writes in his Dictionary of Word Origins (2011), “it was widely thought that the Romany people originated in Egypt.” Meanwhile, the non-ethnic uses of “gypsy” (with a lowercase “g”) should not be condemned. It should be avoided entirely if any ethnic connection is implied instead, the words “Roma” or “Romani” should be used. Our conclusions are that that “Gypsy” (with a capital “G”) is offensive to some people, and should be used with caution if at all. And those uses are not regarded as pejorative, at least in dictionaries. What’s more, the uncapitalized “gypsy” has meanings that are ultimately derived from the original sense but no longer have ethnic or racial associations. On the other hand, some Roma people don’t mind being called “Gypsies” and others even embrace the term. Some people who identify themselves as ethnically Roma (also called Romani or Romany) are offended by “Gypsy,” and most standard dictionaries have reservations about using it to mean Roma. Is “Gypsy” a slur?Ī: This is a complicated and sensitive question. Q: In the quilting world, there’s a popular design named “Gypsy Wife.” When a woman recently posted a photo of a nice one she made to a Facebook page, she was lambasted for using the term “Gypsy.” Because of the complaints, she removed the photo.
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