gypsy

gypsy · noun, adjective, verb¹

See Gypsy. Compare bohemian, from Bohemia.

Gypsy · noun, proper noun, adjective²

1. Latin · derived fromaegyptianus
2. Old French · derived fromegyptien
3. Middle English · derived fromEgipcian“Egyptian”
4. English todayGypsy

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.