Etymology

tzigane

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Today it means: A Hungarian Gypsy (Romani person). Full definition →

Hungarian cigány ← French tzigane ← Russian цыган (cygan)
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The story

  1. Russianцыган (cygan)
  2. Frenchtzigane
  3. Hungariancigány
  4. English todaytzigane

From the Hungarian cigány via French tzigane, from Medieval Greek ἀθίγγανος (athínganos, “untouchable”). Cognate to Italian zigano, zingano and zingaro, Spanish cíngaro, German Zigeuner, Dutch zigeuner, Afrikaans sigeuner, Portuguese cigano, Romanian țigan, Polish Cygan, Czech Cikán, Serbo-Croatian cigan, Russian цыган (cygan), Turkish Çingene. Doublet of zingaro. The other major categories of words for the Roma are cognates of Rom (words related to the Romani people's autonyms) and cognates of Gypsy (words related to Egypt); see those entries for more information.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.