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Gypped or gyped

Posted by R. Berg on April 17, 2001

In Reply to: Gypped or gyped posted by RANDALL on April 17, 2001

: : : I belive this pertains to the past tense of hving been in the company of a gypsie/gypsy, and being tricked out of your money or whatever as in "I've been gypdt'. How would you spell gyptd correctly and what is the meaninbg/origin??

: : The word is gypped or gyped as related to gypsy.

: : Quite stereotypical and racist to link a whole group of people to being thieves.

: : The Roma have been made up of many different groups of people from the very beginning, and have absorbed outsiders throughout their history. Because they arrived in Europe from the East, they were thought by the first Europeans to be from Turkey or Nubia or Egypt, or any number of vaguely acknowledged non-European places, and they were called, among other things, Egyptians or 'Gyptians, which is where the word "Gypsy" comes from. In some places, this Egyptian identity was taken entirely seriously, and was no doubt borrowed by the early Roma themselves. In the 15th century, James the Fifth of Scotland concluded a treaty with a local Romani leader pledging the support of his armies to help recover "Little Egypt" (an old name for Epirus, on the Greek-Albanian coast) for them.

: HEY - Who are you to call me a racist ? ? I am looking for the meaning and/or origin of this word, and not a lecture about a politicly correct attitude as consternation. Now find the word for me, and the meaning, or origin. I am not responsible for what the word infers. I want to know exactly what it means, and the origin. So -put up some info, or shut up and disregard my search.

Excuse me, Randall. May I make a few points? Bruce's reply might easily mean that the people who invented the word "gyp" for thievery were doing something racist, not that you are a racist. His posting doesn't provide me with evidence that he was accusing you of something--and that means it doesn't provide you with such evidence, either. He gave you the info you asked for: the spelling of the past tense and confirmation of the link with gypsies. The people who answer queries on this site are all volunteers. We donate our time and the use of our reference books and our knowledge of informative websites as a service to those who come with questions. Giving orders is not appropriate, particularly an order to shut up.

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