Talk:gypsy

Every example pejorative
Every example actully used in this is perjorative. 2 of the definitions were perjorative. Please remember there was a section of Auschwitz for Gypsies -- rmo13, 19 February 2006

I have spent a couple of hours yesterday looking at this issue and couple of others using Google for the Gypsy page. (See wikipedia:Talk:Gypsy) But in in summary:

Not one of the three dictionaries I have in my house mention it is pejorative althought as a by the OPD gives preference to Gipsy.

In British English it is not pejorative: One of the pressure groups which represent traveling people and have represented Gypsies and Travelers in Parliamentry committes are Gypsy & Traveller Law Reform Coalition if Gypsy were a derogatory term, why do they use it? Trevor Phillips - Chair Commission for Racial Equality said
 * "The Commission for Racial Equality firmly supports the work of the Gypsy and Traveller Law Reform Coalition, which is playing a critical role in driving improvements for Gypsies and Travellers, and providing a powerful voice to lobby for change. There are clearly huge challenges ahead - and we hope to work closely with the coalition in taking this and our own Gypsy and Traveller strategy forward."''

See also East Anglian Gypsy Council (EAGC) ''Why Romani/ Gypsy? Roma is the name that a particular ethnic group of gypsies call themselves. Througout the world they have been known as Romani ((feminin)or Romano (masculine) Gypsies for the past six hundred years. However not all of the people known as Gypsies in the world or indeed in Britain are Roma. Irish Traveling People are an example, so to be inclusive of those Gypsies of other ethnic origins we on this web site use Romani/Gypsy to describe a wider community. '' They seem to make a distinction that the British Governent does not that Gypsy includes Travallers, but they are quite willing to use the term and they do not say that it is pejorative.

I think the problem of if being considered pejorative is probably to do with word in other languages being consided pejorative, and as the word is translated into English as Gyspy native speakers of that language assume that it is also pejorative in English.

In Britian to use the word Gypsy is no more insulting than calling Germans German. Just as there are pejorative words which can be used as to describe all other groups in Britain, there are pejorative words for Gypsies, but Gypsy is not more pejorative than the word Welsh. The Welsh do not call themselves in Welsh in Welsh, but that does not make the word Welsh pejorative in English.

If the sentence "A member of the Roma. This term is considered pejorative by many and by the Roma themselves." then it needs a verifiablereference to reliable, published source. Here is one which clearly indicates that it is not Commission for Racial Equality:Gypsies and Travellers: the facts -- Philip Baird Shearer 14:40, 24 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the effort - The Webster entry dates from the age of eugenics. Warning is needed for the unwary. Usage by individuals varies, including within the Roma community, which as a stateless group, is definitely not uniform. I have introduced "Gypsy" since capitalization definitely helps and may be essential disambiguation of usage. (btw "Dutch" and "welshed" seem perjoative to me, but maybe not "scotched" or "english")
 * Can we agree that uncapitalized is perjorative?

A less perjorative use is as a synonym to bohemian, ie, carefree, unconvetional. (although my American Anglo-Saxon Protestant ancestors used both bohemian and Bohemian perjoratively.) Rmo13 15:39, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

pejorative?
i think someone on a mission has been putting in these "pejorative" terms everywhere and trying to rearrange the list of standard gypsy features to put thieving at the top of the list. gypsy in normal usage, at least in the US, and apparently also in the UK (according to other comments on this page) is NOT pejorative. most people, afaik, think of gypsies as being itinerant musicians, street performers, having exotic costumes, living at the fringes of society, etc. and some (esp. women, i think) may refer to themselves as gypsies (cf. Stevie Nicks) if they feel an affinity towards the way of life of the gypsies. those who keep insisting on saying that words like "gypsy" are pejorative are confusing pejorative terms with racism. someone who is racist towards gypsies/Roma/whatever will often turn any name for them into an insult. but that doesn't mean the term itself should be considered pejorative. for example, grade school buys routinely insult others by calling them gay, but that doesn't make "gay" as a term referring to homosexual men an insult among society at large. similarly for expressions such as "to jew someone down" w.r.t. Jews. Uqbar 05:47, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

the above seems quite romantisised remember we are talking about an oppressed ethnic group who never gave themselves the term Gypsy it was imposed on them by Europieans who thought they came out of Egypt it's not the same as calling a German a German .Germans call themselves German many Rom find Gypsy pejorative and those who do use it feel outsiders shouldn't pop culture has romantisised the term to the point most of the western world feel it's a way of life not an ethnic group and simply calling your self a Gypsy dressing the garb and playing make believe is insulting as well, most of what I read here is like saying it's also okay to call an African a nigger it's not okay it's also imposed and both are pejorative capitalise or not

Anonymous Contributor: As a gay person, the use of "that's so gay" is using it in a pejorative context. The same way that "jewed" as a verb is derogatory, the same way that "Gyped" should be viewed as derogatory by introducing a cultural bias that intrinsically associates these communities in a negative light.

Anonymous Contributor: Let's wait till region of origin, country of origin, birth date, zodiac sign, hair style, facial features, breathing patterns, having a weird ancestor 1000 years ago, cigarette preferences, book preferences, eye color, toe size, favorite moon phase in The Lord of The Rings and others become a pejorative too.

Greatly insultive towards Romani people
Reading this I do not feel the explanation properly respects the Romani people.

The 1st meaning should reflect the etymology which is that the word Gypsy is a short form of the word 'Egyptian'. This is the true meaning of the word within both the English & French language. Gypsy = Egyptian. The 2nd meaning should be that it is used in connection to the NW Indian originating people known as the Roms / Roma. This being due to the fact that through history many people have mistaken them as being Egyptian. It should respectfully mention how many Roms take the term Gypsy as an insult.

The term Gypsy should never be used in connection with any other nomadic or travelling associated people other than the Roms / Roma as the Roms are the only group to have been mistaken as being Egyptian. To class any other group as being "Gipsy" is a form of racism as it is built on anti-Romani stereotypes and prejudices that are based simply on the assumption of a supposed similar low status.

In addition to this many Romani families do not actually travel. Roms (gitanos) in Spain would often live in caves and many Roms in Romani & Hungary live in Romani neighbourhoods called a 'Mahala'.


 * The etymology already says, "From Middle English, Old French , from Latin . See Egyptian:." Is that somehow incomplete?  As for the definitions, this project reports how people actually do or once did use words.  If a particular sense is considered offensive, we indicate that with a tag like "pejorative" or "offensive", but we don't actually suppress a definition just because its use is considered offensive.  Does that make sense?  Rod (A. Smith) 02:27, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
 * The word for a Gypsy quarter in Bulgaria is also mahala (махала), but I had no idea that the word may be the same in Hungarian, which is quite distant (from etymological point of view)from Bulgarian. The uſer hight Bogorm converſation 11:42, 27 February 2009 (UTC)