Gypsy

Meaning

Noun

1. (offensive, sometimes) A member of the Romani people, or one of the sub-groups (Roma, Sinti, Romanichal, etc).
2. A member of other nomadic peoples, not only of the Romani people; a traveller. Alternative spelling of gypsy

Name

1. (offensive, rare, sometimes) The language Romani.
2. A female given name.

Adj

Of or belonging to the Romani people or one of it sub-groups (Roma, Sinti, Romanichel, etc).

Synonyms

Gipsy

Romany

gypsy

Roma

Romani

Sinti

Bohemian

gipsy

Rommany

Rom

hussy

baggage

Gitano

Translations

cigano

gitano

tsigane

cigana

Zigeuner

zigeuner

τσιγγάνος

tzigane

gitano

zigeunerin

gitana

gitan

romayî

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈd͡ʒɪp.si/

Etymology

Cognate with Albanian: evgjit

Cognate with Greek: γύφτος

Cognate with Italian: gitano

Cognate with Spanish: gitano

In summary

A clipping of Gyptian (in Early Modern English roughly /ˈd͡ʒɪp.sɪ.æn/), itself an aphetic form of Egyptian, from Middle English Egipcian (“Egyptian”) (rarely Gypcian), from Old French egyptien, from Latin aegyptianus, from aegyptius (“Egypt”), because when Roma first appeared in England in the sixteenth century, they were wrongly believed to have come from Egypt. The Albanian evgjit, Greek γύφτος (gýftos), Italian gitano, Spanish gitano and Turkish Kıpti have the same origin. Doublet of Egyptian and Copt.
The other major categories of words for the Roma are cognates of Rom (words related to the Romani people's autonyms) and cognates of tzigane (words derived from Greek); see those entries for more information.