# Is "gyp" a derogatory word? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 10, 2012, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502 "2012-05-10T15:09:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/21 "2012-05-11T12:52:18Z")
> [@manila](#): > > Is this mainly an Americanism? As a youth I only ever heard the term used to describe a persistent pain or bad stomach as in " My leg is still giving me gyp" or “can’t leave the bathroom because of my gyppy tummy” > > The latter I believe has its origins in the 2nd World War in the Middle East describing the symptoms of dysentry and is a corruption of Egypt (also synonymous with Delhi Belly) > > UK/Euro or Commonwealth dopers concur? Apparently, in this particular context ‘giving me gyp’ is a contraction of ‘gee up’ as in horse whip ([cite](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gyp)), so not actually offensive in origin, but highly likely to be misunderstood as such. An interesting, very similar modern formation I’ve encountered is _‘canes’_ - as in ‘My leg really _canes_’ - presumably meaning “hurts as if being caned” ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/22 "2012-05-11T12:54:36Z")
> [@heathen\_earthling](#): > > “Gypsy” itself is short for an old word meaning “Egyptian,” which is completely inaccurate but not something that anyone dwells on today. I’ve always figured it stems from the nomadic lifestyle, very common around northern Africa. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/23 "2012-05-11T12:55:46Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The word – meaning “to swindle” – is so far removed from its origins that it has nothing to do with them. You might as well object to “shine” as being offensive. I’m not so sure. I mean, sure, there’s no direct connection between a “Native Americans are Indians” level corruption of “Egyptian” and “to swindle.” But weren’t the Roma (or any band of people labeled gypsies) pretty much (mostly wrongly) known for either being whores, thieves, or thieving whores? I wouldn’t call that any more far removed than saying I had a [“Nigga moment”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhgwy9y5ttA) is far removed from offense to black people. And unlike “shine,” which was a perfectly fine word used for a racist purpose, “gypped” is **literally** a corruption of a mildly\* (or very, depending on where and who you are) derogatory term for the Romani. A better example might be saying something is “retarded” which about half the population freaks out about being insensitive, and the other half says “no, one meaning of the word is completely separate in my mind from the other.” - “Mildly” in the way that “Indian” for “Native American” is mildly derogatory or offensive. It’s probably better if you don’t use it, but it’s mild enough to be a faux pas rather than an actual racist remark. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/24 "2012-05-11T13:20:39Z")
I don’t think I’ve heard the word or used it for about 30 years. In fact I’m not sure I ever made the connection until I saw it written just now. But to opine on the question… while it may be derogatory it doesn’t really matter. If there are enough gypsies in the US that start voting in large numbers for one party, then it will matter. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/25 "2012-05-11T13:30:40Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > I don’t think I’ve heard the word or used it for about 30 years. In fact I’m not sure I ever made the connection until I saw it written just now. > > But to opine on the question… while it may be derogatory it doesn’t really matter. If there are enough gypsies in the US that start voting in large numbers for one party, then it will matter. This, to me, sounds an awful lot like “come on guys, I can use ‘cunt.’ There’s no chicks here, this is a men-only smoking lounge.” Ultimately I agree “gyp” is rather minor on the sliding scale of racially insensitive words, and I don’t agree with being **overly** -PC. But to argue that the fact it’s offensive doesn’t matter because the people it refers to are statistically insignificant in terms of population is a bit… wrong. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/26 "2012-05-11T14:09:50Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > So, unacceptable word or not? It’s clearly derogatory, but I don’t think it’s unacceptable. It’s like saying “Dutch treat” – tulips and windmills are the furthest thing from my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/27 "2012-05-11T14:13:39Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > It is absolutely derogatory. Just because someone doesn’t know it’s derogatory doesn’t make it any less offensive. Thankyou! And I just want to add we nigra poofter retards agree wid youse. ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/28 "2012-05-11T14:22:18Z")
> [@manila](#): > > Is this mainly an Americanism? As a youth I only ever heard the term used to describe a persistent pain or bad stomach as in " My leg is still giving me gyp" or “can’t leave the bathroom because of my gyppy tummy” > > The latter I believe has its origins in the 2nd World War in the Middle East describing the symptoms of dysentry and is a corruption of Egypt (also synonymous with Delhi Belly) > > UK/Euro or Commonwealth dopers concur? I’ve never heard it as described in the OP. When I lived in Ireland there were (and there still are) huge tensions between both Irish travellers and Rom on the one hand and the settled community on the other. Both travellers and Rom could sometimes be referred to as “gypos” (among other more common slurs). Therefore I think the using the term in the way the OP describes in Ireland would be both unusual in that I’ve never heard it and inflammatory because everyone would immediately make the connection to an already volatile political situation. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/29 "2012-05-11T15:16:37Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > The reason there aren’t many gypsies about, was that the Germans and their allies genocided 95% of them when you Americans were waiting out the second world war. Please don’t spit on their graves. While my sympathy is strongly with the Roma, Jews, Slavs, homosexuals, and disabled people that the Nazis went after, and I would never spit on their graves, your statement (and implied accusation) is something of a stretch, if not entirely wrong. While the Nazis began to _persecute_ the Romani the moment they rose to power, and codified some of that into the Nuremberg Laws in 1936, and moved some Romani into camps before the war, they didn’t begin a formal program of extermination until _after_ the US had entered the war: [QUOTE=Wikipedia] On December 16, 1942, Himmler ordered that the Romani candidates for extermination should be deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. To the Romani people of Europe, this order was equivalent to the January 20 decision of that same year, made at the Wannsee Conference, at which Nazi bureaucrats decided on the “Final Solution” to the “Jewish problem”. Himmler then ordered, on November 15, 1943, that Romanies and “part-Romanies” were to be put “on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps.”[56] [/QUOTE] From [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porajmos). Nazi Germany declared war on the US on Dec 11, 1941 – _more than a year earlier._ In fact, over the course of the year _before_ the Nazi death order against the Romani, the follwing notable events took place: January 13, 1942: German U-Boat offensive against the United States (Operation _Paukenschlag_) (Americans were dying in naval war against Nazi Germany). August 17, 1942: First all-American air attack in Europe (Americans were dying in air war against Nazi Germany). November 8, 1942: Operation Torch, the British-American invasion of North Africa (Americans were dying in ground war against Nazi Germany). Now, it is true that _[einsatzgruppen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsatzgruppen)_ followed the German armies into the Soviet Union’s territories beginning in late June, 1941 – six months before Germany and America were at war – and they definitely killed Romani civilians (among many other classes of “undesirables”). At that time, those killings were in conquered territory, and associated with the advancing armies, and to some extent represent targets of opportunity – it was easy to get away with killing in the chaos of the titanic ground war. While those killings were certainly part and parcel of the Nazi attack on “undesirables” and a part of the overall genocide, the _formal orders_ to begin extermination camps for “undesirables” in all German territories came about 18 months later, after the Americans had been dying at Nazi hands for over a year. The American record on the Holocaust and the Porajmos is not a proud one, to be sure, a mixed record of slow reaction and a degree of willful blindness, but we were not “waiting out the second world war” while it happened. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/30 "2012-05-11T15:49:11Z")
Are gypsies even a race or an ethnicity? Would you be offended by term hobo or vagabond? ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/31 "2012-05-11T15:52:43Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Are gypsies even a race or an ethnicity? > > Would you be offended by term hobo or vagabond? [The Romani are an ethnic group living mostly in Europe, who trace their origins to the Indian Subcontinent. Romani are widely known in the English-speaking world by the exonym Gypsies (or Gipsies).](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people) ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/32 "2012-05-11T16:11:26Z")
> [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](#): > > [The Romani are an ethnic group living mostly in Europe, who trace their origins to the Indian Subcontinent. Romani are widely known in the English-speaking world by the exonym Gypsies (or Gipsies).](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people) But on the other hand, and from the same article: [“In North America, the word gypsy is commonly used as a reference to lifestyle or fashion, and not to the Romani ethnicity.”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people#Gypsy) ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/33 "2012-05-11T16:15:02Z")
I always thought they were Romanians, and that gypsies were people that traveled alot and didn’t really live anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/34 "2012-05-11T17:01:32Z")
> [@PookahMacPhellimey](#): > > I’ve never heard it as described in the OP. When I lived in Ireland there were (and there still are) huge tensions between both Irish travellers and Rom on the one hand and the settled community on the other. Both travellers and Rom could sometimes be referred to as “gypos” (among other more common slurs). Therefore I think the using the term in the way the OP describes in Ireland would be both unusual in that I’ve never heard it and inflammatory because everyone would immediately make the connection to an already volatile political situation. I think though “gypo” is one of the less offensive terms used, it’s almost affectionate. It’s not a word I’d choose to use to label people but it’s not as loaded as many other terms. On the other hand I was introduced to the term “What a gyp!” by Homer Simpson and never made the connection between it and gypsy. It’s not a common term here and I’d say most people who are familiar with it are familiar with it from American telly. Some claim gypsy itself is an offensive word but it’s used in a non-derogatory term all the time in both Ireland and Britain. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/35 "2012-05-11T17:20:57Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > But on the other hand, and from the same article: > [“In North America, the word gypsy is commonly used as a reference to lifestyle or fashion, and not to the Romani ethnicity.”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people#Gypsy) Even so, the word “gyp” originated as a reference to the “Gypsy” people and their alleged dishonesty and thievery, not to “gypsies” as in vagabonds. Even if the word “gypsy” has different meanings in different places, it’s the name for the ethnic group from which the word being discussed derives (note “Gypsy” with a capital G in the OP vs. the lower case g in your citation.) ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/36 "2012-05-11T18:07:50Z")
I never even realized it was supposed to be spelled “gyp” until some classmate got super offended at a teacher using the word in high school. I always thought it was “jip” and never once was it ever associated with Gypsies. ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/37 "2012-05-11T19:11:24Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Some claim gypsy itself is an offensive word but it’s used in a non-derogatory term all the time in both Ireland and Britain. I don’t think it’s derogatory in intent, but it’s a strikes me a being at least a little bit ignorant by force of being incorrect, that is, by not calling people what they would like to be called. So a bit like the term “Eskimo”. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/38 "2012-05-11T20:12:14Z")
I have always considered the Gypsy/gyp controversy similiar to the uses of the word Jew and Jewish. Using the word Jew or Jewish to describe someone who is a Jew is not in and of itself a slur. Using the word “jew” as a verb to describe rude haggling over a price is. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/39 "2012-05-11T20:45:00Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > I have always considered the Gypsy/gyp controversy similiar to the uses of the word Jew and Jewish. Using the word Jew or Jewish to describe someone who is a Jew is not in and of itself a slur. Using the word “jew” as a verb to describe rude haggling over a price is. How do you feel about the terms “philistine” and “barbarian” (both of which have been applied to specific ethnicities in the past)? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502/40 "2012-05-11T20:47:21Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > I think though “gypo” is one of the less offensive terms used, it’s almost affectionate. I used this term on this message board many years ago and it earned me my first (and only that I know of) warning from a Mod. I would say that as far as **The Straight Dope** is concerned, it is offensive. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-gyp-a-derogatory-word/621502.md?page=3)