noun, adj, verb — 14 senses
/ˈd͡ʒɪp.si/
Etymology See Gypsy. Compare bohemian, from Bohemia.
Alternative, Offensive, Sometimes Alternative form of Gypsy (“member of the Romani people”).
Colloquial An itinerant person or any person, not necessarily Romani; a tinker, a traveller or a carny.
Offensive, Sometimes A move in contra dancing in which two dancers walk in a circle around each other while maintaining eye contact (but not touching as in a swing). (Compare whole gyp, half gyp, and gypsy meltdown, in which this step precedes a swing.)
Entertainment, Lifestyle, Theater A member of a Broadway musical chorus line.
Dated A person with a dark complexion.
Dated A sly, roguish woman.
Colloquial, Dated A fortune teller.
Etymology See Gypsy. Compare bohemian, from Bohemia.
Alternative Alternative form of Gypsy: of or belonging to the Rom, Dom or Lom people.
Offensive Of or having the qualities of an itinerant person or group with qualities traditionally ascribed to Romani people; making a living from dishonest practices or theft etc.
Etymology See Gypsy. Compare bohemian, from Bohemia.
To roam around the country like a gypsy.
To perform the gypsy step in contra dancing.
US, UK /ˈd͡ʒɪp.si/
A clipping of Gyptian (in Early Modern English roughly /ˈd͡ʒɪp.sɪ.æn/), itself an apheretic 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.
Offensive, Sometimes A member of the Romani people, or one of the sub-groups (Roma, Sinti, Romanichal, etc).
A member of other nomadic peoples, not only of the Romani people; a traveller. Alternative spelling of gypsy.
A clipping of Gyptian (in Early Modern English roughly /ˈd͡ʒɪp.sɪ.æn/), itself an apheretic 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.
Offensive, Sometimes Of or belonging to the Romani people or one of it sub-groups (Roma, Sinti, Romanichel, etc).
Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for gypsy and Gypsy.