Gypsy

The term gypsy (or gipsy) is a common term used to describe Romani people or Travelers. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that a gypsy is a According to the OED, the word was first used in English in 1514, with several more uses in the same century, and that both Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare used the word. The word 'Gypsy' derives from 'Egyptian, the same as the Spanish Gitano or the French Gitan. It emerged in Europe, in the 1... more

The term gypsy (or gipsy) is a common term used to describe Romani people or Travelers. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that a gypsy is a According to the OED, the word was first used in English in 1514, with several more uses in the same century, and that both Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare used the word. The word 'Gypsy' derives from 'Egyptian, the same as the Spanish Gitano or the French Gitan. It emerged in Europe, in the 15th century, after their migration into the land of the Romani people (or Roma) in that continent. They received this name from the local people either because they spread in Europe from an area named Little Egypt, in Southern Balkans or because they fitted the European image of dark-skinned Egyptians skilled in witchcraft. When they first arrived at numerous places in Europe they claimed to be from Egypt, and required to travel for seven years for apostacy During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was written in various ways: Egipcian... less